NEURO-COGNITIVE AND PRAGMATIC MAPPING OF CODE-SWITCHING AMONG UZBEK-ENGLISH BILINGUAL YOUTH: A STUDY ON COGNITIVE OPTIMIZATION AND EMOTIONAL DISTANCING

This research investigates the neuro-psycholinguistic architecture of Uzbek-English bilinguals, focusing on the phenomenon of code-switching (CS). Moving beyond the view of CS as a mere sociolinguistic artifact, this study treats it as a window into executive function, mental lexicon organization, and neuro-efficiency. By integrating the Inhibitory Control Model (IC) and the Matrix Language Frame (MLF), the paper analyzes how bilingual youth integrate an analytical language (English) into an agglutinative base (Uzbek). Empirical data suggests that CS is driven by lexical accessibility and the "Emotional Buffer" effect, resulting in enhanced cognitive flexibility and superior multitasking capabilities.