Román, P. 1 , Gómez-Ariza, C. 2 & Bajo, M. T. 3
1 Max Planck Institute for Human Cognitive and Brain Sciences. Leipzig
2 Univerisdad de Jaén
3 Universidad de Granada
Bilinguals activate their two languages even in contexts where just one of them is required. Inhibition has been proposed as a candidate mechanism for language selection; suppressing the lexical representations of the irrelevant language facilitates access to the relevant one. The relation of language selection to a more general inhibitory control mechanism has also been the focus of interest (Green, 1998) and some researchers have built a bridge between retrieval induced forgetting (RIF) and language inhibition (Levy et al., 2007). In this study, we explore the neural substrates of RIF in language control. To do so, we register ERPs during retrieval practice in a bilingual picture naming task. As expected, results showed differences in ERPs during picture naming as a function of the number of the retrieval practice in L2. Moreover, source analyses on such differences reveal that the neural activity is originated in regions that have been associated to the RIF effect in neuroimaging studies. We discuss the data in the context of theories of bilingual language selection and control.