Over the last two decades, a large number of studies have concluded that bilingualism enhances executive functions. However, other studies have reported no significant results. In addition, it is not clear how bilingualism might modulate specific executive control processes. Event-related potentials (ERP) are an excellent technique for identifying whether the neural correlates of executive control processes are strengthened by bilingualism, given their high temporal resolution. On the basis of previous research into the ERP correlates of executive functions, we hypothesize that specific ERP differences between monolinguals and bilinguals can be considered to indicate a bilingual advantage in executive functions. We then review the very limited number of studies that have investigated ERP differences between monolinguals and bilinguals during the performance of executive control tasks. Overall, we conclude that the existence of a bilingual advantage in neural processing related to executive functions remains uncertain and further studies are required. We highlight the utility of investigating several ERPs that have been ignored by previous studies.

在过去的二十年中，大量研究得出结论，双语制增强了行政职能。但是，其他研究报告没有明显的结果。此外，尚不清楚双语会如何调节特定的执行控制程序。事件相关电位（ERP）是一种出色的技术，可用于确定执行控制过程的神经相关性是否因双语而得到增强，因为它们具有较高的时间分辨率。在先前对执行功能的ERP相关性的研究的基础上，我们假设单语和双语之间的特定ERP差异可以被认为表明执行功能具有双语优势。然后，我们回顾了非常少量的研究，这些研究调查了执行控制任务执行过程中单语和双语之间ERP的差异。总体而言，我们得出结论，与执行功能相关的神经处理中双语优势的存在仍然不确定，需要进一步研究。我们强调了调查先前研究中忽略的几种ERP的实用性。