Electrocortical functional connectivity during language selection in bilinguals

This study describes the picture of cortical connections when bilinguals switch between their first and second language. Event-related potentials (ERPs) were measured in 21 Chinese-English bilinguals during the monolingual task selection context (TSc) and bilingual language selection context (LSc) picture-naming tasks. Then, the wavelet transforms of ERP records were used, and the regions of interest (ROI) for the standardized Low Resolution Electromagnetic Tomography (sLORETA) of the wavelet curve were reconstructed. The correlation coefficients (CCs) were computed for each subject with each frequency between pair scalp electrode or pair intracranial ROIs. By comparing the CC induced by the same first language naming as the TSc and LSc, we find significant networks of gamma rhythm connections, comprising the bundle of connections binding prefrontal and ACC areas. These results revealed an earlier and longer lexical retrieve process in language switch task.