Research ReportIn-context language control with production tasks in bilinguals: An fMRI study

- We study the neural bases of in-context language control in bilinguals.
- Inhibitory control mechanism is at work during in-context language control.
- Asymmetric switching effects are found at the neural level.
- Symmetric switching costs are found at the behavioral level.
- We interpreted our imaging and behavioral results in light of context effects.

Bilinguals exhibit a feat to control their two languages in conversation. The neural substrates of bilingual language control have been well investigated with language switching paradigm. Yet, most of those studies have taken single lexical items (i.e., words outside a context) as the investigative tool. In the present study, we examined the neural substrates of in-context language control in unbalanced bilinguals with a sentence-end switching paradigm. Our results showed that in-context language control in bilinguals recruited the neural mechanisms that were similar in kind to those responsible for cognitive control in general. When the direction of switching was considered, we found that backward switching called for more cognitive/language control relative to forward switching. Behaviorally, symmetric switching costs were found regardless of the switching factor (switching vs. non-switching) and the language factor (L1 vs. L2). We interpreted our imaging and behavioral results as the effects of context when unbalanced bilinguals controlled their two languages in a context.