Young children in different linguistic environments: A multimodal neuroimaging study of the inferior frontal gyrus

Thieba, Camilia; Long, Xiangyu; Dewey, Deborah; Lebel, Catherine

doi:10.1016/j.bandc.2018.05.009

Cited by 20 publications

(17 citation statements)

References 74 publications

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“…Finally, Thieba, Long, Dewey and Lebel ( 2019 ) compared 3-to-5-year-old children raised in a multilingual environment to children raised in a monolingual environment. The two groups were matched on age, sex, and both maternal education and household income (measures of socioeconomic status).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The effect of bilingualism on brain development from early childhood to young adulthood

et al. 2020

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Bilingualism affects the structure of the brain in adults, as evidenced by experience-dependent grey and white matter changes in brain structures implicated in language learning, processing, and control. However, limited evidence exists on how bilingualism may influence brain development. We examined the developmental patterns of both grey and white matter structures in a cross-sectional study of a large sample (n = 711 for grey matter, n = 637 for white matter) of bilingual and monolingual participants, aged 3-21 years. Metrics of grey matter (thickness, volume, and surface area) and white matter (fractional anisotropy and mean diffusivity) were examined across 41 cortical and subcortical brain structures and 20 tracts, respectively. We used generalized additive modelling to analyze whether, how, and where the developmental trajectories of bilinguals and monolinguals might differ. Bilingual and monolingual participants manifested distinct developmental trajectories in both grey and white matter structures. As compared to monolinguals, bilinguals showed: (a) more grey matter (less developmental loss) starting during late childhood and adolescence, mainly in frontal and parietal regions (particularly in the inferior frontal gyrus pars opercularis, superior frontal cortex, inferior and superior parietal cortex, and precuneus); and (b) higher white matter integrity (greater developmental increase) starting during mid-late adolescence, specifically in striatal-inferior frontal fibers. The data suggest that there may be a developmental basis to the well-documented structural differences in the brain between bilingual and monolingual adults.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The effect of bilingualism on brain development from early childhood to young adulthood

et al. 2020

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“…Simultaneous and early sequential multilinguals appear to demonstrate greater connectivity between the dACC and the fronto-parietal network (Becker et al, 2016) and reduced coupling between the dACC and right IFG (Thieba et al, 2019). These changes are accompanied by increased left IFG activity and decreased dACC activity in response to conflict (Garbin et al, 2010;Rodríguez-Pujadas et al, 2014).…”

Section: Linguistic Variabilitymentioning

confidence: 94%

“…Functional connection strengths from dACC to dlPFC and the striatum increased in early bilinguals and decreased in monolinguals when mentally applying new task rules (Becker et al, 2016). In contrast, resting-state connectivity between the right IFG and dACC was weaker in young multilingual compared to monolingual children (Thieba et al, 2019). This suggests that early multilingualism may alter the developmental trajectory of the dACC, such that the degree to which the dACC decouples from the fronto-parietal network and integrates with the cinguloopercular network is reduced in multilinguals.…”

Section: Multilingual Experience Affects the Cingulo-opercular Networkmentioning

confidence: 98%

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Cognitive Persistence and Executive Function in the Multilingual Brain During Aging

Teubner‐Rhodes

2020

Front. Psychol.

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Researchers have debated the extent to which the experience of speaking more than two languages induces long-term neuroplasticity that protects multilinguals from the adverse cognitive effects of aging. In this review, I propose a novel theory that multilingualism affects cognitive persistence, the application of effort to improve performance on challenging tasks. I review recent evidence demonstrating that the cingulo-opercular network, consisting of the bilateral inferior frontal gyrus (IFG) and dorsal anterior cingulate cortex (dACC), supports cognitive persistence. I then show that this same network is involved in multilingual language control and changes with multilingual language experience. While both early and late multilinguals exhibit differences in the cingulo-opercular network compared to monolinguals, I find that early multilinguals have a pattern of decreased dACC activity and increased left IFG activity that may enable more efficient cognitive control, whereas late multilinguals show larger dACC responses to conflict that may be associated with higher cognitive persistence. I further demonstrate that multilingual effects on the cingulo-opercular network are present in older adults and have been implicated in the mitigation of cognitive symptoms in age-related neurodegenerative disorders. Finally, I argue that mixed results in the literature are due, in part, to the confound between cognitive persistence and ability in most executive function tasks, and I provide guidance for separating these processes in future research.

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“…Recent studies have shown that atypical brain functions combined with information about alterations in brain structure explained better symptom severity in children with ADHD (Zhan et al, 2017; Wu et al, 2019). Another example concerns the evaluation of the brain correlates of math or language learning after instruction or intervention where a combination of anatomy and function information provided more accurate explanations than functional information alone (Supekar et al, 2013; Evans et al, 2015; Thieba et al, 2019), and proven to be useful in explaining the co-occurrence of reading and mathematical difficulties in children (Skeide et al, 2018).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Educational fMRI: From the Lab to the Classroom

2019

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Functional MRI (fMRI) findings hold many potential applications for education, and yet, the translation of fMRI findings to education has not flowed. Here, we address the types of fMRI that could better support applications of neuroscience to the classroom. This ‘educational fMRI’ comprises eight main challenges: (1) collecting artifact-free fMRI data in school-aged participants and in vulnerable young populations, (2) investigating heterogenous cohorts with wide variability in learning abilities and disabilities, (3) studying the brain under natural and ecological conditions, given that many practical topics of interest for education can be addressed only in ecological contexts, (4) depicting complex age-dependent associations of brain and behaviour with multi-modal imaging, (5) assessing changes in brain function related to developmental trajectories and instructional intervention with longitudinal designs, (6) providing system-level mechanistic explanations of brain function, so that useful individualized predictions about learning can be generated, (7) reporting negative findings, so that resources are not wasted on developing ineffective interventions, and (8) sharing data and creating large-scale longitudinal data repositories to ensure transparency and reproducibility of fMRI findings for education. These issues are of paramount importance to the development of optimal fMRI practices for educational applications.

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Young children in different linguistic environments: A multimodal neuroimaging study of the inferior frontal gyrus

Cited by 20 publications

References 74 publications

The effect of bilingualism on brain development from early childhood to young adulthood

The effect of bilingualism on brain development from early childhood to young adulthood

Cognitive Persistence and Executive Function in the Multilingual Brain During Aging

Educational fMRI: From the Lab to the Classroom

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