Interaction of language and control processes in monolingual and bilingual cognition

神经可塑性是指大脑的结构和功能随着经验的变化而改变，为认知能力的终身适应提供了可能性。这种适应可能是一种有效的干预方法，旨在随着年龄的增长保护认知功能。一种已被证明可以改变认知功能的经验是双语能力：在一生中，双语者在各种执行控制(EC)测试中的表现都好于单语者。然而，人们对这些影响知之甚少，特别是对双语能力和更广泛的神经可塑性。这项拟议的研究将使用行为和脑电测量来研究单语或双语的年轻人和老年人，以了解这种经历是如何影响认知能力的。这项研究有两个关键的悬而未决的问题。

Neuroplasticity is the idea that brain structure and function change in response to experience, offering the possibility for lifelong adaptation of cognitive ability. Such adaptation may be a powerful approach to interventions designed to protect cognitive function with aging. One experience that has been shown to modify cognitive function is bilingualism: across the lifespan, bilinguals outperform monolinguals on various tests of executive control (EC). However, much is unknown about these effects, both for bilingualism in particular and neuroplasticity more generally. The proposed studies will use behavioural and EEG measures to study younger and older adults who are monolingual or bilingual to understand how this experience affects cognitive ability. There are two crucial outstanding issues in this research.