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Related Experiment Video

Updated: Jul 7, 2026

Examining Bilingual Language Control Using the Stroop Task

Examining Bilingual Language Control Using the Stroop Task

Published on: February 26, 2020

Cognitive Flexibility and Bilingual Language Switching: An fMRI Meta-Analysis.

Zhanna Chuikova^1,2, Andrei Faber³, Jubin Abutalebi^1,4,5

¹Cognitive Health and Intelligence Centre, Institute for Cognitive Neuroscience, HSE University, Moscow, Russian Federation.

The European Journal of Neuroscience

|July 6, 2026

Summary

This summary is machine-generated.

Bilinguals

Keywords:

Wisconsin card sorting test bilingualism cognitive flexibility fMRI language switching rule discovery rule retrieval task switching

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Area of Science:

Neuroscience
Cognitive Psychology
Psycholinguistics

Background:

Language switching in bilinguals involves executive control mechanisms.
Cognitive flexibility (CF) is closely linked to language switching, but neural overlaps are unclear.
Previous fMRI studies show varied neural activity for language switching and CF tasks.

Purpose of the Study:

To investigate the neural correlates of language switching in bilinguals.
To identify common and distinct neural mechanisms between language switching and cognitive flexibility tasks.
To propose a unified neuroanatomical model for mental switching.

Main Methods:

Activation likelihood estimation (ALE) meta-analysis.
Analyzed 107 experiments from 83 articles (1977 participants).
Included Wisconsin Card Sorting Test (WCST) for rule discovery, Task-Switching Paradigm (TSP) for rule retrieval, and language-switching paradigms.

Main Results:

No significant neural differences between language switching and TSP (rule retrieval).
Language-switching-specific activity found in the left pre-supplementary motor area/anterior cingulate cortex when compared to WCST (rule discovery).
Common activation across all tasks (language switching, TSP, WCST) in left intraparietal sulcus/inferior parietal lobule, left superior parietal lobule, and pre-supplementary motor area.

Conclusions:

Language switching and task switching (rule retrieval) share common neural mechanisms.
Language switching engages distinct regions compared to rule discovery tasks.
A unified neuroanatomical model for mental switching across different cognitive tasks is proposed.