Dvojezičnost i kognitivno funkcioniranje

Abstract

Bilingualism is the phenomenon of using two languages simultaneously, most commonly developed in early childhood due to cultural or social factors. The positive influence of bilingualism is seen since childhood. During early childhood, the brain is more plastic, i.e. susceptible to change, and it is therefore much easier to learn new languages and differentiate between sounds or phonemic differences between languages, which adults find difficult to learn or can never learn. Young bilingual children show the ability to recognize languages by mouth movements, they have greater attention flexibility, better reaction control and even better memory. There are also distinct differences between bilingual and monolingual people, which include a greater volume of gray matter, of the anterior and posterior corpus callosum, and especially of the basal ganglia. Furthermore, research shows a specific change in cognitive processing in bilingual adults, in which there is less activation of anterior and more activation of posterior brain areas. This change is considered to be the possible cause of better cognitive functioning and later cognitive decline found in bilingual people. In general, results show better connectivity and regulation of brain areas in bilinguals, along with adapting to changes in accordance with task demands. Bilinguals show advantages in various cognitive tasks, especially those regarding executive functions, and they show better results in areas such as attention control, flexibility, memory, task shifting, and error detection.