Subcortical encoding of sound is enhanced in bilinguals and relates to executive function advantages

Abstract

Bilingualism profoundly affects the brain, yielding functional and structural changes in cortical regions dedicated to language processing and executive function [Crinion J, et al. (2006) Science 312:1537–1540; Kim KHS, et al. (1997) Nature 388:171–174]. Comparatively, musical training, another type of sensory enrichment, translates to expertise in cognitive processing and refined biological processing of sound in both cortical and subcortical structures. Therefore, we asked whether bilingualism can also promote experience-dependent plasticity in subcortical auditory processing. We found that adolescent bilinguals, listening to the speech syllable [da], encoded the stimulus more robustly than age-matched monolinguals. Specifically, bilinguals showed enhanced encoding of the fundamental frequency, a feature known to underlie pitch perception and grouping of auditory objects. This enhancement was associated with executive function advantages. Thus, through experience-related tuning of attention, the bilingual auditory system becomes highly efficient in automatically processing sound. This study provides biological evidence for system-wide neural plasticity in auditory experts that facilitates a tight coupling of sensory and cognitive functions.

The impact of musical training and tone language experience on talker identification

“…For instance, L2 language ability has found to have gradient effect on talker identification (Bregman and Creel, 2014). On the other hand, reports on the auditory processing advantages originating from bilingualism have only been reported in studies testing high-proficient early bilinguals (Krizman et al, 2012). It is an empirical question whether similar benefits are present at all in late bilinguals, such as the Mandarin listeners in the current study.…”

“…It is therefore possible that the advantages we see in this group arise not from native language experience speaking a tone language but from potential perceptual advantages that might arise from being a bilingual (Krizman et al, 2012). It is worth noting that a significant proportion of our English listeners also reported similar late foreign language experience with comparable starting age of acquisition and classroom learning environment, although we did not have sufficient information to assess the actual quality of learning in the two populations.…”

A Little Goes a Long Way: How the Adult Brain Is Shaped by Musical Training in Childhood

“…Our findings are consistent with reports that adult nonhuman animals receive residual behavioral benefits from brief auditory training that they received as juveniles (Sarro and Sanes, 2011), that regular physical activity early in life is associated with better cognitive function later in life in humans (Dik et al, 2003) and nonhumans (Gomes da Silva et al, 2012), and that past musical experience is predictive of enhanced cognitive performance in older adults (Hanna-Pladdy and MacKay, 2011). Although the present study did not investigate the enduring behavioral benefits of childhood music training, we draw from prior work linking enhanced auditory brainstem encoding with heightened auditory perception, executive function, and auditory-based communication skills (Parbery-Clark et al, 2009;Ruggles et al, 2011;Kraus et al, 2012;Krizman et al, 2012;Song et al, 2012) to suggest that musical training during development may produce long-lasting positive effects on the adult brain. During development, negative alterations in the environment, such as noise or limited acoustic diversity, lead to longlasting neural despecializations, including reduced neural synchrony and decreased frequency selectivity (Zhang et al, 2002;Chang and Merzenich, 2003;Ruggles et al, 2011).…”

“…We predicted that musical training during childhood leads to more robust neural processing of sound later in life. Our predictions were based on evidence that auditory brainstem responses (ABRs) to complex sounds are sensitive to the lifelong musical experience (Kraus and Chandrasekaran, 2010), language you speak (Krishnan et al, 2005;Krishnan and Gandour, 2009), the instrument you play , early and extensive bilingual experience (Krizman et al, 2012), and short-term auditory training (Song et al, 2008(Song et al, , 2012Carcagno and Plack, 2011;Chandrasekaran et al, 2012).…”

Is the Universal English Education from the Primary Level in Bangladesh Necessary? A Domain Wise Study

“…A bilingual can attain better listening skill for his/her effort to bridge the gaps existing between two languages. According to Krizman et al (2012), being bilingual can lead to improved listening skills, since the brain has to work harder to distinguish different types of sounds in two or more languages. They believe that learning a second language ultimately enforces the base of L1.…”