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Transcranial Direct Current Stimulation tDCS of Wernicke's and Broca's Areas in Studies of Language Learning and Word Acquisition
Published on: July 13, 2019
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Cathodal transcranial direct current stimulation over right dorsolateral prefrontal cortex improves language control
Baike Li1, Huanhuan Liu2, Alejandro Pérez3
1Research Center of Brain and Cognitive Neuroscience, Liaoning Normal University, Dalian, 116029, China.
Behavioural Brain Research
|May 30, 2018
Summary
Cathodal transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) improved inhibitory control in unbalanced bilinguals during language switching. This suggests tDCS can enhance language control efficiency by reducing cross-language interference.
Area of Science:
- Neuroscience
- Cognitive Science
- Psycholinguistics
Background:
- Bilingualism research increasingly focuses on language control and cross-language interference.
- The right dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (rDLPFC) is implicated in inhibiting irrelevant information.
- Transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) offers a method to modulate brain activity.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate the effect of modulating the rDLPFC using tDCS on language control mechanisms during language switching in bilinguals.
- To determine if tDCS can improve language control efficiency and reduce interference in unbalanced bilinguals.
Main Methods:
- Participants underwent three counterbalanced tDCS conditions: cathodal, anodal, and sham stimulation.
- A picture naming task was used to assess language switching performance after each stimulation.
- Event-related potentials, specifically the late positive component (LPC), and behavioral switch costs were analyzed.
Main Results:
- Unbalanced bilinguals showed larger LPC when switching to their weaker language compared to their dominant language.
- Similar L1 and L2 switch costs were observed only during cathodal tDCS (C-tDCS).
- The difference between L1 and L2 switch costs was significantly smaller in the C-tDCS session compared to the sham-tDCS (S-tDCS) session.
Conclusions:
- Cathodal stimulation of the rDLPFC appears to enhance inhibitory control in unbalanced bilinguals, thereby reducing cross-language interference during language switching.
- These findings support the role of the rDLPFC in language control and suggest tDCS as a potential tool for improving bilingual language processing.
- Alternative mechanisms, such as effects on the supplementary motor area impacting speech planning, are also considered.
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