Analysis of Cognitive and Interhemispheric Features in Normal Bilinguals and in Patients with Neurological Diseases and Mental Disorders

Background: the relationship between the effectiveness of bilingualism, interhemispheric interaction and the cognitive sphere poorly understood. The aim was to assess combination factor of bilingualism in frame of “cognitive-lateral model” and to determine statistical characteristics of empiric parameters depending of bilingualism. Participants and Methods: 21 healthy persons were examined. Neurocognitive methods included the Compass and Tower of Hanoi tests. The profile of the lateral organization and the leading arm were determined. The intensity of interhemispheric interaction was assessed by determining the maximum angle of preservation of stereopsis. The set of factors of bilingualism was empirically assessed within the framework of the “cognitive-bilateral model”. The statistical characteristics of the empirical variables of the model are determined depending on the degree of mastery of a second/several languages. Results: correlations were obtained between the indicators of the lateral organization profile and the leading hand in the Annette test (r = 0.34), scores in the “Compass” task (r = 0.33), and the number of moves in solving the “Tower of Hanoi” problem (r = −0.45) and the intensity of interhemispheric interaction after cognitive load (r = −0.38). Using discriminant analysis, the discriminatory parameters of the model were determined, characterizing cognitive psychological characteristics, an indicator of lateral organization and the intensity of interhemispheric interaction in relation to the “effectiveness of bilingualism”. The discriminatory function included variables from the “Compass” and “Tower of Hanoi” cognitive tests with the greatest contribution from the lateral organization and leading hand profile indicators Classification based on the difference between group centroids was more than 90%. Conclusions: effectiveness of bilingualism study based on cognitive-lateral model could be perspective in studying of psychiatric and neurological pathology.

1. Kroll J., Stewart E. Category interference in transla tion and picture naming: Evidence from asymmetric connections between bilingual memory representa tions. J Mem Lang. 1994;33, 149–174. doi: 10.1006/JMLA.1994.1008 Corpus ID: 143592596

2. Fabbro F. The bilingual brain: cerebral representa tion of languages. Brain Lang. 2001;79(2):211–22. doi: 10.1006/brln.2001.2481 PMID: 11712845.

3. Hervais-Adelman AG, Moser-Mercer B, Golestani N. Executive Control of Language in the Bilingual Brain Integrating the Evidence from Neuroimag ing to Neuropsychology. Front Psychol. 2011;2:234 doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2011.00234

4. Kovelman I, Baker SA, Petitto LA. Bilingual and monolingual brains compared: a functional mag netic resonance imaging investigation of syntac tic processing and a possible “neural signature” of bilingualism. J Cogn Neurosci. 2008;20(1):153–69. doi: 10.1162/jocn.2008.20011 PMID: 17919083; PMCID: PMC2643466.

5. Kim KH, Relkin NR, Lee KM, Hirsch J. Distinct cor tical areas associated with native and second languages. Nature. 1997 Jul 10;388(6638):171–4. doi: 10.1038/40623 PMID: 9217156.

6. Tokowicz N, Michael EB, Kroll JF. The roles of study abroad experience and working-memory capacity in the types of errors made during translation. Bilin gualism: Language and Cognition. 2004;7(3):255 272. doi: 10.1017/S1366728904001634

7. Mergen F., Kuruoglu G. Lateralization of lexical pro cessing in monolinguals and bilinguals. Int. J. Biling. 2021;25(6):1497–1509. https://www.researchgate.net/publication/359391828

8. Innocenti GM, Schmidt K, Milleret C, Fabri M, Knyaze va MG, Battaglia-Mayer A, Aboitiz F, Ptito M, Caleo M, Marzi CA, Barakovic M, Lepore F, Caminiti R. The func tional characterization of callosal connections. Prog Neurobiol. 2022;208:102186. doi: 10.1016/j.pneurobio.2021.102186 Epub 2021 Nov 12. PMID: 34780864; PMCID: PMC8752969. 9.

9. Chen P, Hayakawa S, Marian V. Cognitive and Lin guistic Predictors of Bilingual Single-Word Trans lation. J Cult Cogn Sci. 2020 Oct;4(2):145–164. doi: 10.1007/s41809-020-00061-6 Epub 2020 Jul 12. PMID: 33615138; PMCID: PMC7891460.

10. Wartenburger I, Heekeren HR, Abutalebi J, Cappa SF, Villringer A, Perani D. Early setting of grammatical processing in the bilingual brain. Neuron. 2003 Jan 9;37(1):159–70. doi: 10.1016/s0896-6273(02)01150 9 PMID: 12526781.

11. Abutalebi J, Della Rosa PA, Ding G, Weekes B, Cos ta A, Green DW. Language proficiency modulates сthe engagement of cognitive control areas in multilinguals. Cortex. 2013 Mar;49(3):905–911. doi: 10.1016/j.cortex.2012.08.018 Epub 2012 Sep 1. PMID: 23021069.

12. Peng G, Wang WS. Hemisphere lateralization is influenced by bilingual status and composition of words. Neuropsychologia. 2011;49(7):1981–6. doi: 10.1016/j.neuropsychologia.2011.03.027 Epub 2011 Mar 31. PMID: 21439988

13. Ostrovskiy V.A. Some technical solutions of task of interhemispheric interaction’s intensification in hu man brain Tomsk State Pedagogical University Bulletin 2011;(6):144–146. (In Russ.).

14. Abutalebi J, Green DW. Neuroimaging of language control in bilinguals: neural adaptation and re serve. Bilingualism. 2016;19:689–698. doi: 10.1017/S1366728916000225

15. Calabria M, Costa A, Green DW, Abutalebi J. Neural basis of bilingual language control. Ann N Y Acad Sci. 2018 Jun 19. doi: 10.1111/nyas.13879 Epub ahead of print. PMID: 29917244

16. Luk G, Green DW, Abutalebi J, Grady C. Cognitive con trol for language switching in bilinguals: A quan titative meta-analysis of functional neuroimaging studies. Lang Cogn Process. 2011 Nov 17;27(10):1479 1488. doi: 10.1080/01690965.2011.613209 PMID: 24795491; PMCID: PMC4006828.

17. Abutalebi, J., Green, D. Bilingual language produc tion: The neurocognition of language representation and control. J. Neurolinguistics. 2007;20(3):242–275. doi: 10.1016/j.jneuroling.2006.10.003

18. Felton A, Vazquez D, Ramos-Nunez AI, Greene MR, McDowell A, Hernandez AE, Chiarello C. Bilingualism Influences Structural Indices of Interhemispheric Organization. J Neurolinguistics. 2017 May;42:1–11. doi: 10.1016/j.jneuroling.2016.10.004 Epub 2016 Nov 10. PMID: 28579694; PMCID: PMC5450970

19. Hull, R., Vaid, J.. Bilingual language lateralization: A meta-analytic tale of two hemispheres. Neuropsy chologia, 2007;45(9):1987–2008. doi: 10.1016/j.neuropsychologia.2007.03.002

20. Tao L, Wang G, Zhu M, Cai Q. Bilingualism and do main-general cognitive functions from a neural perspective: A systematic review. Neurosci Biobe hav Rev. 2021 Jun;125:264–295. doi: 10.1016/j.neubiorev.2021.02.029 Epub 2021 Feb 22. PMID: 33631315.