Vestibular nucleus stimulation for ameliorating locomotor dynamics in a Parkinsonian mouse model.

Over the past decades, a large body of work has examined whether bilingualism is associated with a range of cognitive benefits, a phenomenon commonly referred to as the bilingual cognitive advantage hypothesis (BCA; Bialystok ). One of the most frequently examined cognitive domains underlying this advantage is executive functioning (EF), a set of higher‐order cognitive processes that support goal‐directed behavior, self‐regulation, and flexible thinking, particularly in nonroutine or complex situations (Miyake et al. ; Arizmendi et al. ). The constant management of two or more active language systems, which requires individuals to selectively attend to the target language while suppressing interference from the non‐target language, has been proposed as a means to strengthen these control processes (Green and Abutalebi ; Bialystok ). Miyake and colleagues' (2000) framework, refined by Friedman and Miyake (), identifies three core components of executive function (EF): updating, shifting, and inhibition. Updating involves managing and manipulating information in working memory (Arizmendi et al. ; Beaudin and Poulin‐Dubois ), shifting enables transitions between tasks or mental sets (Calcott and Berkman ), and inhibition involves suppressing automatic responses to favor goal‐relevant behavior (Kang et al. ). EF can also be divided into hot and cold categories. Hot EF relates to emotional and motivational processing, while cold EF involves neutral, cognitive processing (Salehinejad et al. ). Inhibition is divided into hot inhibition, such as response suppression in delay‐of‐gratification tasks (Arizmendi et al. ; Beaudin and Poulin‐Dubois ), and cold inhibition, which is measured in tasks like the Stroop or Flanker, which develops from around 9 months onward (Hendry et al. ; Lowe et al. ). As previously mentioned, one of the primary variables of interest in studying the Bilingual Cognitive Advantage (BCA) is the effect of bilingualism on executive function (EF) skills. According to Green's () inhibitory control model, the bilingual advantage in EF is thought to stem from the continual need to manage competition between two simultaneously active linguistic systems. When bilinguals produce or comprehend speech, both language systems are activated, requiring executive control processes to selectively attend to the target language while suppressing interference from the non‐target language. This process relies on a supervisory attentional system that regulates mental frameworks, or task schemas, governing language use by inhibiting those associated with the irrelevant language. Over time, this constant practice in goal‐directed selection and inhibition is believed to strengthen domain‐specific inhibitory control (Bialystok ). Supporting this theory, recent research on infants suggests that bilingual experience can enhance attentional orienting and alter cortical organization, which are foundational to cognitive control mechanisms (Arredondo et al. ; Arredondo et al. ). These early developments in attentional orienting may lay the groundwork for the later emergence of cold inhibition, enabling bilinguals to suppress distractions and focus more effectively on cognitive tasks.