Executive control in bilingual aphasia

In this completed PhD project, the role of executive control in bilingual people with aphasia (PWA) was investigated. Many people in the Netherlands speak more than one language. Nevertheless, the vast majority of aphasia research has focused on monolingual individuals and their native language. Speaking and managing more than one language requires continuous monitoring of both languages, inhibition of one language, and the ability to switch between languages. These processes rely on the bilingual speaker’s executive control functions. Executive functions are higher-order cognitive control processes that are essential for planning and carrying out deliberate, complex, or novel behaviour. Additional impairments in executive functioning that have been observed in people with aphasia may therefore place an extra burden on bilingual PWA compared with monolingual PWA. Furthermore, research involving monolingual PWA has shown that better executive control is positively associated with greater recovery, more effective use of compensatory strategies, and stronger functional communication skills. Because executive control is crucial for both the effective use of two languages and recovery from aphasia, it was important to investigate its role in the language and communication abilities of bilingual PWA.