This Major Instrumentation Grant award supports the acquisition of an integrated Electroencephalography (EEG) system (ActiChamp 64 active-electrodes, Brain Vision LLC) to establish the first EEG laboratory at the California State Polytechnic University, Pomona (CPP), one of the few undergraduate Hispanic Serving Institutions (HSI) in the US. EEG is a non-invasive neuroimaging technique that allows the monitoring of human cerebral activity with millisecond precision while cognitive processes unfold. The EEG laboratory at CPP will be critical in developing cutting-edge research to study cognition and neural plasticity. A particular research theme will focus on the neurophysiological bases of bilingualism, asking how the cognitive and neural processes that are engaged by the use of two or more languages affect learning and cognition more generally. This award will enable a unique initiative to establish a cross-disciplinary research program in electrophysiology and cognitive neuroscience that will include a number of researchers in Psychology, Bioengineering and Linguistics. The EEG laboratory will also be key in creating a unique research and training consortium between CPP, Pomona College (a nearby research intensive undergraduate institution), and the University of California, Riverside (UCR). Overall, this award will significantly enhance research capacity at CPP, and by doing so, will promote research-training opportunities for CPP's undergraduate students who are predominantly members of underrepresented minorities. The research to be conducted holds the promise to overturn many of the previously held stereotypes about bilingualism, with implications for dual language education and for the potential of bilingualism to protect aging brains.
A major focus of the planned research will investigate the neurophysiological, cognitive and social underpinnings of second language (L2) learning and bilingualism. In the last 30 years, advances in neuroscience have changed understanding of the relationship between language, cognition, and the brain. EEG provides information about what neural activity occurs in response to specific language and cognitive processes with exceptional temporal precision. Because language processing is extremely fast, the most transformative application of EEG has been to capture and distinguish among language and cognitive processes that would have otherwise not been measurable simply by tracking behavior. More specifically, the team will develop research on the cognitive and neural underpinnings of new L2 language learning and consolidation, while analyzing the EEG signal in both time (ERPs) and frequency (TF) domains. Questions related to changes in neural plasticity, network reorganization, and functional connectivity as a function of L2 learning and bilingualism will be investigated looking at the earliest changes in EEG network connectivity, and EEG resting state networks. The goal will be to better understand the overall cognitive and neural implications of bilingualism and L2 learning across the life-span from younger to older adulthood. Finally, the team will exploit a unique feature of bilingualism by investigating the cognitive and neural underpinnings of code-switching between two languages, the practice of mixing two languages that is common in bilingual communities and that holds the potential to reveal new insights into the way that multiple languages are represented in the brain.
