The impact of bilingual experience on task-driven resting-state functional connectivity in the language and attentional cognitive domains

Brain function is significantly affected by language experience, with greater posterior activity and more efficient long-distance communication observed in bilinguals compared to monolinguals. Despite these findings, little is known about whether bilingualism as a long-term cognitively challenging experience differentially impacts brain function in the short-term and whether this differs for connectivity patterns underlying processing in different cognitive domains. In this study, we use a novel task-driven resting-state electroencephalography paradigm, incorporating tasks in the attentional (Flanker) and language (lexical retrieval) domains. The impact of quantified bilingual experience on functional connectivity for different domains was investigated with non-linear generalised additive models. Our findings uncovered greater left fronto-temporal connectivity in the attentional domain, and increased left temporal activity in the language domain, consistent with shared nodes between the language and executive control networks. This evidence has a significant impact on our understanding of bilingual functional adaptation and short-term changes to brain dynamics.