LANGUAGE PREFERENCE IN EARLY-ACQUIRED BILINGUALS: EVIDENCE FROM EVENT-RELATED POTENTIALS

Language use in bilinguals reflects both cognitive and emotional factors and may vary depending on language dominance and context. This study aimed to investigate neurocognitive correlates of language preference in early-acquired bilinguals by examining event-related potential (ERP) responses to emotionally laden words in two closely related languages. Fifty-four healthy participants aged 17–32 years were divided into two equal groups according to their mother tongue (Russian or Ukrainian). Participants listened to two sets of emotion-laden words (100 per language), consisting of two- to three-syllable words conveying comparable semantic and emotional content. Early and late ERP components were analysed. Significant intergroup differences were observed in early perceptual processing. Ukrainian-language stimuli elicited a larger P100 amplitude over the right frontal region in native Russian speakers compared with native Ukrainian speakers. The P200 amplitude was significantly higher in native Ukrainian speakers across left anterofrontal, right frontal and left frontotemporal regions. In native Ukrainian speakers, Russian-language stimuli evoked an enhanced N200 response in the right visual associative cortex and right angular gyrus, regions implicated in emotional speech processing, whereas no comparable N200 modulation was observed in native Russian speakers listening to Russian stimuli. No significant group differences were found in the P300 component. These findings suggest that processing the non-dominant language requires increased attentional and cognitive resources, while comparable P300 responses may reflect high proficiency in both languages. Overall, the results indicate that early bilinguals, regardless of language dominance, engage similar neural networks for semantic and associative processing of emotionally meaningful verbal information.