Abstract
Code switching has been studied in the context of a side effect of neurological pathology. However, little is known about how to apply code switching to the assessment of neuropathology and test development. This study reviewed and identified cognitive and linguistic theoretical underpinning, and neuropsychological and neuroanatomical aspects of code switching in order to use code switching to activate interference. These provide valuable information to consider for developing code switching-based neuropsychological tests. Overall, this study found that code switching is a diverse and multi-dimensional process. Theories mainly denote activation of the retrieval and organization of lexicolinguistic knowledge. Neuropsychological domains that are involved include executive functions, lexical retrieval, and working memory. Brain regions implicated in code switching heavily rely on frontosubcortical structures and, to a lesser extent, temporal and parietal cortical regions. These areas mainly involve executive control and language functions, which act to select relevant and inhibit irrelevant language networks. Specifically, these regions include the anterior cingulated cortex, the left dorsolateral prefrontal cortex, the bilateral supramarginal gyri, left caudate, left putamen, left globus pallidus, left thalamus, and middle temporal areas. The paper outlines the application of code switching tests using common executive functioning, lexical fluency, and working memory neuropsychology instrument. These include code switching versions of phonemic fluency, semantic fluency, written and oral Trail Making Test, and digit span. Interference, dual task, and other formulas are used to determine the degree of language interference and switching.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Abutalebi, J., Della Rosa, P. A., Green, D. W., Hernandez, M., Scifo, P., Keim, R., et al. (2011). Bilingualism tunes the anterior cingulate cortex for conflict monitoring. Cerebral Cortex,22(9), 2076–2086.
Abutalebi, J., Della Rosa, P. A., Tettamanti, M., Green, D. W., & Cappa, S. F. (2009). Bilingual aphasia and language control: a follow-up fMRI and intrinsic connectivity study. Brain and Language,109(2–3), 141–156.
Abutalebi, J., & Green, D. W. (2008). Control mechanisms in bilingual language production: Neural evidence from language switching studies. Language and Cognitive Processes,23(4), 557–582.
Abutalebi, J., & Green, D. W. (2016). Neuroimaging of language control in bilinguals: Neural adaptation and reserve. Bilingualism: Language and Cognition,19(4), 689–698.
Abutalebi, J., Miozzo, A., & Cappa, S. F. (2000). Do subcortical structures control ‘language selection’in polyglots? Evidence from pathological language mixing. Neurocase,6(1), 51–56.
Auer, P. (1995). The pragmatics of code-switching: A sequential approach. In One speaker, two languages: cross-disciplinary perspectives on code-switching (pp. 115–135).
Auer, P. (2005). A postscript: Code-switching and social identity. Journal of Pragmatics,37(3), 403–410.
Baddeley, A., Della Sala, S., Papagno, C., & Spinnler, H. (1997). Dual-task performance in dysexecutive and nondysexecutive patients with a frontal lesion. Neuropsychology,11(2), 187.
Bentahila, A., & Davies, E. E. (1983). The syntax of Arabic-French code-switching. Lingua,59(4), 301–330.
Bhatia, T. K., & Ritchie, W. C. (2008). The handbook of bilingualism. Hoboken: Wiley.
Bialystok, E. (2009). Bilingualism: The good, the bad, and the indifferent. Bilingualism: Language and Cognition,12(1), 3–11.
Bialystok, E., Craik, F. I., & Luk, G. (2012). Bilingualism: Consequences for mind and brain. Trends in Cognitive Sciences,16(4), 240–250.
Boehler, C. N., Appelbaum, L. G., Krebs, R. M., Hopf, J. M., & Woldorff, M. G. (2010). Pinning down response inhibition in the brain—Conjunction analyses of the stop-signal task. Neuroimage,52(4), 1621–1632.
Bush, G., Luu, P., & Posner, M. I. (2000). Cognitive and emotional influences in anterior cingulate cortex. Trends in Cognitive Sciences,4(6), 215–222.
Cantone, K. F. (2007). Code-switching in bilingual children. Berlin: Springer.
Casaponsa, A., Carreiras, M., & Duñabeitia, J. A. (2015). How do bilinguals identify the language of the words they read? Brain Research,1624, 153–166.
Chomsky, N. (1980). Human language and other semiotic systems. In Speaking of apes (pp. 429-440). Boston, MA: Springer.
Chomsky, N. (2000). The architecture of language. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Clyne, M., Clyne, M. G., & Michael, C. (2003). Dynamics of language contact: English and immigrant languages. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Fabbro, F. (2013). The neurolinguistics of bilingualism: An introduction. London: Psychology Press.
Fabbro, F., Skrap, M., & Aglioti, S. (2000). Pathological switching between languages after frontal lesions in a bilingual patient. Journal of Neurology, Neurosurgery and Psychiatry,68(5), 650–652.
Gardner-Chloros, P. (1991). Language selection and switching. Strasbourg: Oxford University Press.
Gold, B. T., Johnson, N. F., & Powell, D. K. (2013). Lifelong bilingualism contributes to cognitive reserve against white matter integrity declines in aging. Neuropsychologia,51(13), 2841–2846.
Golden, C. J. (1978). Stroop color and word test. Wood Dale: Stoelting Co.
Grahn, J. A., Parkinson, J. A., & Owen, A. M. (2008). The cognitive functions of the caudate nucleus. Progress in Neurobiology,86(3), 141–155.
Green, D. W., & Abutalebi, J. (2013). Language control in bilinguals: The adaptive control hypothesis. Journal of Cognitive Psychology,25(5), 515–530.
Grimes, B. F. (1992). Ethnologue: Languages of the world, IIth edn.. Dallas, Texas: Summer Institute of Linguistics Inc.
Grosjean, F. (1995). A psycholinguistic approach to code-switching: The recognition of guest words by bilinguals. In One speaker, two languages: cross-disciplinary perspectives on code-switching (pp. 259–275).
Gumperz, J. J. (1982a). Discourse strategies. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Gumperz, J. J. (1982b). Discourse strategies (Vol. 1). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Haugen, E. (1950). The analysis of linguistic borrowing. Language,26(2), 210–231.
Hedden, T., & Gabrieli, J. D. (2010). Shared and selective neural correlates of inhibition, facilitation, and shifting processes during executive control. Neuroimage,51(1), 421–431.
Hester, R., Foxe, J. J., Molholm, S., Shpaner, M., & Garavan, H. (2005). Neural mechanisms involved in error processing: A comparison of errors made with and without awareness. Neuroimage,27(3), 602–608.
Holmes, J., & Wilson, N. (2017). An introduction to sociolinguistics. Abingdon: Routledge.
Kerns, J. G., Cohen, J. D., MacDonald, A. W., Cho, R. Y., Stenger, V. A., & Carter, C. S. (2004). Anterior cingulate conflict monitoring and adjustments in control. Science,303(5660), 1023–1026.
Liu, H., Hu, Z., Guo, T., & Peng, D. (2010). Speaking words in two languages with one brain: Neural overlap and dissociation. Brain Research,1316, 75–82.
Luk, G., Bialystok, E., Craik, F. I., & Grady, C. L. (2011). Lifelong bilingualism maintains white matter integrity in older adults. Journal of Neuroscience,31(46), 16808–16813.
Luk, G., Green, D. W., Abutalebi, J., & Grady, C. (2012). Cognitive control for language switching in bilinguals: A quantitative meta-analysis of functional neuroimaging studies. Language and Cognitive Processes,27(10), 1479–1488.
Macswan, J. (2000). The architecture of the bilingual language faculty: Evidence from intrasentential code switching. Bilingualism: Language and Cognition,3(1), 37–54.
Mahootian, S., & Santorini, B. (1994). Adnominal adjectives, code-switching and lexicalized TAG. In 3e Colloque International Sur Les Grammaires (pp. 73–76).
Mariën, P., Abutalebi, J., Engelborghs, S., & De Deyn, P. P. (2005). Pathophysiology of language switching and mixing in an early bilingual child with subcortical aphasia. Neurocase,11(6), 385–398.
Milroy, L., & Muysken, P. (1995). One speaker, two languages: Cross-disciplinary perspectives on code-switching. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Muysken, P., Díaz, C. P., & Muysken, P. C. (2000). Bilingual speech: A typology of code-mixing. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Myers-Scotton, C. (1989). Codeswitching with English: Types of switching, types of communities. World Englishes,8(3), 333–346.
Myers-Scotton, C. (1993). Common and uncommon ground: Social and structural factors in codeswitching. Language in Society,22(4), 475–503.
Myers-Scotton, C. (2002). Contact linguistics: Bilingual encounters and grammatical outcomes. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Myers-Scotton, C. (2006). Natural codeswitching knocks on the laboratory door. Bilingualism: Language and Cognition,9(2), 203–212.
Nachev, P., Kennard, C., & Husain, M. (2008). Functional role of the supplementary and pre-supplementary motor areas. Nature Reviews Neuroscience,9(11), 856.
Naseh, L. (2002). Disagreement in agreement: A study of grammatical aspects of code switching in swedish. Persian bilingual speech.
Paradis, M. (1993). Linguistic, psycholinguistic, and neurolinguistic aspects of interference in bilingual speakers: The activation threshold hypothesis. International Journal of Psycholinguistics,9, 133–145.
Paradis, M. (1998). Language and communication in multilinguals (pp. 417–430)., Handbook of neurolinguistics Amsterdam: Elsevier.
Poplack, Shana, Sankoff, David, & Miller, Christopher. (1988). The social correlates and linguistic processes of lexical borrowing and assimilation. Linguistics,26(1), 47–104.
Ridderinkhof, K. R., Ullsperger, M., Crone, E. A., & Nieuwenhuis, S. (2004a). The role of the medial frontal cortex in cognitive control. Science,306(5695), 443–447.
Ridderinkhof, K. R., Van Den Wildenberg, W. P., Segalowitz, S. J., & Carter, C. S. (2004b). Neurocognitive mechanisms of cognitive control: The role of prefrontal cortex in action selection, response inhibition, performance monitoring, and reward-based learning. Brain and Cognition,56(2), 129–140.
Romaine, Suzanne. (1995). Bilingualism (2nd ed.). Malden: Blackwell Publishers.
Sankoff, D., & Poplack, S. (1981). A formal grammar for code-switching. Research on Language & Social Interaction,14(1), 3–45.
Santorini, B., & Mahootian, S. (1995). Codeswitching and the syntactic status of adnominal adjectives. Lingua,96(1), 1–27.
Seeley, W. W., Menon, V., Schatzberg, A. F., Keller, J., Glover, G. H., Kenna, H., et al. (2007). Dissociable intrinsic connectivity networks for salience processing and executive control. Journal of Neuroscience,27(9), 2349–2356.
Toro, R., Fox, P. T., & Paus, T. (2008). Functional coactivation map of the human brain. Cerebral Cortex,18(11), 2553–2559.
Treffers-Daller, J. (2009). Code-switching and transfer: An exploration of similarities and differences. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
van Schouwenburg, M. R., den Ouden, H. E., & Cools, R. (2010). The human basal ganglia modulate frontal-posterior connectivity during attention shifting. Journal of Neuroscience,30(29), 9910–9918.
Velanova, K., Wheeler, M. E., & Luna, B. (2008). Maturational changes in anterior cingulate and frontoparietal recruitment support the development of error processing and inhibitory control. Cerebral Cortex,18(11), 2505–2522.
Wei, L. (1998). Codeswitching in conversation: Language, interaction and identity, chapter The’why’ and’how’questionsintheanalysisofconversational codeswitching (pp. 156–176). Abingdon: Routledge.
Weinreich, U. (2010). Languages in contact: Findings and problems. Berlin: Walter de Gruyter.
Westlye, L. T., Grydeland, H., Walhovd, K. B., & Fjell, A. M. (2010). Associations between regional cortical thickness and attentional networks as measured by the attention network test. Cerebral Cortex,21(2), 345–356.
Winford, D. (2003). An introduction to contact linguistics. Hoboken: Wiley-Blackwell.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Ethics declarations
Conflict of interest
We declare that there is no conflict of interest in this research
Additional information
Publisher's Note
Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Ramezani, A., Alvani, S.R., Mohajer, L. et al. Neuropsychology and Neuroanatomy of Code Switching: Test Development and Application. Psychol Stud 65, 101–114 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12646-019-00548-5
Received:
Accepted:
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12646-019-00548-5