Differences in Brain Functional Networks of Executive Function Between Cantonese-Mandarin Bilinguals and Mandarin Monolinguals.
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ABSTRACT:
SUBMITTER: Cai L
PROVIDER: S-EPMC8638783 | biostudies-literature |
REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature
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Project description:Cantonese-Mandarin bilinguals are logographic-logographic bilinguals that provide a unique population for bilingual studies. Whole brain functional connectivity analysis makes up for the deficiencies of previous bilingual studies on the seed-based approach and helps give a complete picture of the brain connectivity profiles of logographic-logographic bilinguals. The current study is to explore the effect of the long-term logographic-logographic bilingual experience on the functional connectivity of the whole-brain network. Thirty Cantonese-Mandarin bilingual and 30 Mandarin monolingual college students were recruited in the study. Resting state functional magnetic resonance imaging (rs-fMRI) was performed to investigate the whole-brain functional connectivity differences by network-based statistics (NBS), and the differences in network efficiency were investigated by graph theory between the two groups (false discovery rate corrected for multiple comparisons, q = 0.05). Compared with the Mandarin monolingual group, Cantonese-Mandarin bilinguals increased functional connectivity between the bilateral frontoparietal and temporal regions and decreased functional connectivity in the bilateral occipital cortex and between the right sensorimotor region and bilateral prefrontal cortex. No significant differences in network efficiency were found between the two groups. Compared with the Mandarin monolinguals, Cantonese-Mandarin bilinguals had no significant discrepancies in network efficiency. However, the Cantonese-Mandarin bilinguals developed a more strongly connected subnetwork related to language control, inhibition, phonological and semantic processing, and memory retrieval, whereas a weaker connected subnetwork related to visual and phonology processing, and speech production also developed.
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Project description:Neuroimaging studies have reported overlapping neural circuits for cognitive control when engaging in tasks that involve verbal and nonverbal stimuli in young adult bilinguals. However, no study to date has examined the neural basis of verbal and nonverbal task switching in both monolinguals and bilinguals due to the inherent challenge of testing verbal task switching with monolinguals. Therefore, it is not clear whether the finding for overlapping networks is unique to bilingualism or indicative of general cognitive control. To address this question, the current study compared functional neural activation for young adults who were bilingual speakers of English and French or monolingual English speakers who had limited French learning experience ("functional monolinguals") on verbal and nonverbal task switching. Analyses showed common variance explaining general cognitive control in task switching across verbal and nonverbal domains for both groups, in line with the explanation that task switching involves general cognitive control, as well as unique brain regions recruited by monolinguals and bilinguals. Specifically, beyond the processing common to the tasks, monolinguals also recruited distinct networks for each of verbal and nonverbal switching but bilinguals used a common shared network. Thus, the domain-general aspect of switching is different for monolinguals and bilinguals.
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Project description:Cantonese and Mandarin are logographic languages, and the phonology is the main difference between the two languages. It is unclear whether the long-term experience of Cantonese-Mandarin bilingualism will shape different brain white matter structures related to phonological processing. A total of 30 Cantonese-Mandarin bilinguals and 30 Mandarin monolinguals completed diffusion-weighted imaging scan and phonological processing tasks. The tractography and tract-based spatial statistics were used to investigate the structural differences in the bilateral superior longitudinal fasciculus (SLF), inferior longitudinal fasciculus (ILF), and inferior fronto-occipital fasciculus (IFOF) between Cantonese-Mandarin bilinguals and Mandarin monolinguals. The post-hoc correlation analysis was conducted to investigate the relationship between the different structures with phonological processing skills. Compared to the Mandarin monolinguals, the Cantonese-Mandarin bilinguals had higher fractional anisotropy (FA) along the left ILFs higher mean diffusivity (MD) along the right IFOF and the temporoparietal segment of SLF (tSLF), higher axial diffusivity (AD) in the right IFOF and left ILF, and lower number of streamlines in the bilateral tSLF. The mean AD of the different voxels in the right IFOF and the mean FA of the different voxels in the left ILF were positively correlated with the inverse efficiency score (IES) of the Cantonese auditory and Mandarin visual rhyming judgment tasks, respectively, within the bilingual group. The correlation between FA and IES was different among the groups. The long-term experience of Cantonese-Mandarin bilinguals shapes the different brain white matter structures in tSLF, IFOF, and ILF. Compared to the monolinguals, the bilinguals' white matter showed higher diffusivity, especially in the axonal direction. These changes were related to bilinguals' phonological processing.
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