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

ABSTRACT: 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.

SUBMITTER: Pliatsikas C

PROVIDER: S-EPMC7473972 | biostudies-literature | 2020 Sep

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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

Pliatsikas Christos C Meteyard Lotte L Veríssimo João J DeLuca Vincent V Shattuck Kyle K Ullman Michael T MT

Brain structure & function 20200720 7

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 part ...[more]

PMID: 32691216

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Project description:Growing up in a bilingual environment is becoming increasingly common. Yet, we know little about how this enriched language environment influences the connectivity of children's brains. Behavioural research in children and adults has shown that bilingualism experience may boost executive control (EC) skills, such as inhibitory control and attention. Moreover, increased structural and functional (resting-state) connectivity in language-related and EC-related brain networks is associated with increased executive control in bilingual adults. However, how bilingualism factors alter brain connectivity early in brain development remains poorly understood. We will combine standardised tests of attention with structural and resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) in bilingual children. This study will allow us to address an important field of inquiry within linguistics and developmental cognitive neuroscience by examining the following questions: Does bilingual experience modulate connectivity in language-related and EC-related networks in children? Do differences in resting-state brain connectivity correlate with differences in EC skills (specifically attention skills)? How do bilingualism-related factors, such as age of exposure to two languages, language usage and proficiency, modulate brain connectivity? We will collect structural and functional MRI, and quantitative measures of EC and language skills from two groups of English-Greek bilingual children - 20 simultaneous bilinguals (exposure to both languages from birth) and 20 successive bilinguals (exposure to English between the ages of 3 and 5 years) - and 20 English monolingual children, 8-10 years old. We will compare connectivity measures and attention skills between monolinguals and bilinguals to examine the effects of bilingual exposure. We will also examine to what extent bilingualism factors predict brain connectivity in EC and language networks. Overall, we hypothesize that connectivity and EC will be enhanced in bilingual children compared to monolingual children, and each outcome will be modulated by age of exposure to two languages and by bilingual language usage.

Project description:A fundamental task in neuroscience is to characterize the brain's developmental course. While replicable group-level models of structural brain development from childhood to adulthood have recently been identified, we have yet to quantify and understand individual differences in structural brain development. The present study examined inter-individual variability and sex differences in changes in brain structure, as assessed by anatomical MRI, across ages 8.0-26.0 years in 269 participants (149 females) with three time points of data (807 scans), drawn from three longitudinal datasets collected in the Netherlands, Norway, and USA. We further investigated the relationship between overall brain size and developmental changes, as well as how females and males differed in change variability across development. There was considerable inter-individual variability in the magnitude of changes observed for all examined brain measures. The majority of individuals demonstrated decreases in total gray matter volume, cortex volume, mean cortical thickness, and white matter surface area in mid-adolescence, with more variability present during the transition into adolescence and the transition into early adulthood. While most individuals demonstrated increases in white matter volume in early adolescence, this shifted to a majority demonstrating stability starting in mid-to-late adolescence. We observed sex differences in these patterns, and also an association between the size of an individual's brain structure and the overall rate of change for the structure. The present study provides new insight as to the amount of individual variance in changes in structural morphometrics from late childhood to early adulthood in order to obtain a more nuanced picture of brain development. The observed individual- and sex-differences in brain changes also highlight the importance of further studying individual variation in developmental patterns in healthy, at-risk, and clinical populations.

Project description:IMPORTANCE:Early adversity is an important risk factor that relates to internalizing symptoms and altered brain structure. OBJECTIVE:To assess the direct effects of early adversity and child internalizing symptoms (ie, depression, anxiety) on cortical gray matter (GM) volume, as well as the extent to which early adversity associates with variation in cortical GM volume indirectly via increased levels of internalizing symptoms. DESIGN, SETTING, AND PARTICIPANTS:A prospective investigation of associations between adversity within the first 6 years of life, internalizing symptoms during childhood and early adolescence, and altered brain structure in late adolescence (age, 18-21 years) was conducted in a community-based birth cohort in England (Avon Longitudinal Study of Parents and Children). Participants from the cohort included 494 mother-son pairs monitored since the mothers were pregnant (estimated date of delivery between April 1, 1991, and December 31, 1992). Data collection for the present study was conducted between April 1, 1991, and November 30, 2010; the neuroimaging data were collected between September 1, 2010, and November 30, 2012, and data analyses for the present study occurred between January 25, 2013, and February 15, 2015. Risk factors were adversity within the first 6 years of the child's life (including prenatal exposure) and the child's internalizing symptoms between age 7 and 13 years. EXPOSURES:Early childhood adversity. MAIN OUTCOMES AND MEASURES:The main outcome was GM volume of cortical regions previously associated with major depression measured through T1-weighted magnetic resonance images collected in late adolescence. RESULTS:Among 494 young men included in this analysis, early adversity was directly associated with lower GM volumes in the anterior cingulate cortex (? =?-.18; P =?.01) and higher GM volume in the precuneus (? =?.18; P =?.009). Childhood internalizing symptoms were associated with lower GM volume in the right superior frontal gyrus (? =?-.20; P =?.002). Early adversity was also associated with higher levels of internalizing symptoms (? =?.37; P <?.001), which, in turn, were associated with lower superior frontal gyrus volume (ie, an indirect effect) (? =?-.08; 95% CI, -0.14 to -0.01; P =?.02). CONCLUSIONS AND RELEVANCE:Adversity early in life was associated with higher levels of internalizing symptoms as well as with altered brain structure. Early adversity was related to variation in brain structure both directly and via increased levels of internalizing symptoms. These findings may suggest that some of the structural variation often attributed to depression might be associated with early adversity in addition to the effect of depression.

Dataset Information

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

Publications

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

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