Psycholinguistic, cognitive, and neural implications of bimodal bilingualism.
Ontology highlight
ABSTRACT:
SUBMITTER: Emmorey K
PROVIDER: S-EPMC5553278 | biostudies-other | 2016 Mar
REPOSITORIES: biostudies-other
Similar Datasets
Project description:Auditory processing is presumed to be influenced by cognitive processes - including attentional control - in a top-down manner. In bilinguals, activation of both languages during daily communication hones inhibitory skills, which subsequently bolster attentional control. We hypothesize that the heightened attentional demands of bilingual communication strengthens connections between cognitive (i.e., attentional control) and auditory processing, leading to greater across-trial consistency in the auditory evoked response (i.e., neural consistency) in bilinguals. To assess this, we collected passively-elicited auditory evoked responses to the syllable [da] in adolescent Spanish-English bilinguals and English monolinguals and separately obtained measures of attentional control and language ability. Bilinguals demonstrated enhanced attentional control and more consistent brainstem and cortical responses. In bilinguals, but not monolinguals, brainstem consistency tracked with language proficiency and attentional control. We interpret these enhancements in neural consistency as the outcome of strengthened attentional control that emerged from experience communicating in two languages.
| S-EPMC3923605 | biostudies-literature
Project description:The idea of a bilingual advantage in aspects of cognitive control-including cognitive flexibility, inhibition, working memory, and attention-is disputed. Using a sample of kindergarten children, the present study investigated associations between bilingualism and cognitive flexibility-a relationship that has shown mixed findings in prior literature. We also extend prior work by exploring relationships between bilingualism and attentional fluctuations, which represent consistency in attentional control and contribute to cognitive performance. To our knowledge, no previous study has explored this association. Theoretically, attentional fluctuations might mediate or moderate the relationship between bilingualism and cognitive flexibility. However, given evidence of null findings from extant literature when confounding variables are adequately controlled and tasks are standardized, we did not expect to find a bilingual advantage in either cognitive flexibility or attentional fluctuations. Our results supported this hypothesis when considering bilingualism both continuously and categorically. The importance of expanding upon mechanistic accounts connecting bilingualism to cognitive improvements is discussed.
| S-EPMC6562579 | biostudies-literature
Project description:Bimodal bilinguals, fluent in a signed and a spoken language, provide unique insight into the nature of syntactic integration and language control. We investigated whether bimodal bilinguals who are conversing with English monolinguals produce American Sign Language (ASL) grammatical facial expressions to accompany parallel syntactic structures in spoken English. In ASL, raised eyebrows mark conditionals, and furrowed eyebrows mark wh-questions; the grammatical brow movement is synchronized with the manual onset of the clause. Bimodal bilinguals produced more ASL-appropriate facial expressions than did nonsigners and synchronized their expressions with the onset of the corresponding English clauses. This result provides evidence for a dual-language architecture in which grammatical information can be integrated up to the level of phonological implementation. Overall, participants produced more raised brows than furrowed brows, which can convey negative affect. Bimodal bilinguals suppressed but did not completely inhibit ASL facial grammar when it conflicted with conventional facial gestures. We conclude that morphosyntactic elements from two languages can be articulated simultaneously and that complete inhibition of the nonselected language is difficult.
| S-EPMC2632943 | biostudies-literature
Project description:Learning and using multiple languages places major demands on our neurocognitive system, which can impact the way the brain processes information. Here we investigated how early bilingualism influences the neural mechanisms of auditory selective attention, and whether this is further affected by the typological similarity between languages. We tested the neural encoding of continuous attended speech in early balanced bilinguals of typologically similar (Dutch-English) and dissimilar languages (Spanish-English) and compared them to results from English monolinguals we reported earlier. In a dichotic listening paradigm, participants attended to a narrative in their native language while ignoring different types of interference in the other ear. The results revealed that bilingualism modulates the neural mechanisms of selective attention even in the absence of consistent behavioural differences between monolinguals and bilinguals. They also suggested that typological similarity between languages helps fine-tune this modulation, reflecting life-long experiences with resolving competition between more or less similar candidates. The effects were consistent over the time-course of the narrative and suggest that learning a second language at an early age triggers neuroplastic adaptation of the attentional processing system.
| S-EPMC6547874 | biostudies-literature
Project description:Background/objectivesAssessment of cognition in linguistically diverse aging populations is a growing need. Bilingualism may complicate cognitive measurement precision, and bilingualism may vary across Hispanic/Latinx sub-populations. We examined the association among bilingualism, assessment language, and cognitive screening performance in a primarily non-immigrant Mexican American community.DesignProspective, community-based cohort study: The Brain Attack Surveillance in Corpus Christi (BASIC)-Cognitive study.SettingNueces County, Texas.ParticipantsCommunity-dwelling Mexican Americans age 65+, recruited door-to-door using a two-stage area probability sampling procedure.MeasurementsMontreal Cognitive Assessment (MoCA); self-reported bilingualism scale. Participants were classified as monolingual, Spanish dominant bilingual, English dominant bilingual, or balanced bilingual based upon bilingualism scale responses. Linear regressions examined relationships among bilingualism, demographics, cognitive assessment language, and MoCA scores.ResultsThe analytic sample included 547 Mexican American participants (60% female). Fifty-eight percent were classified as balanced bilingual, the majority (88.6%) of whom selected assessment in English. Balanced bilinguals that completed the MoCA in English performed better than balanced bilinguals that completed the MoCA in Spanish (b = -4.0, p < 0.05). Among balanced bilinguals that took the MoCA in Spanish, education outside of the United States was associated with better performance (b = 4.4, p < 0.001). Adjusting for demographics and education, we found no association between the degree of bilingualism and MoCA performance (p's > 0.10).ConclusionBilingualism is important to consider in cognitive aging studies in linguistically diverse communities. Future research should examine whether cognitive test language selection affects cognitive measurement precision in balanced bilinguals.
| S-EPMC8273138 | biostudies-literature
Project description:This study explores whether the cognitive advantage associated with bilingualism in executive functioning extends to young immigrant children challenged by poverty and, if it does, which specific processes are most affected. In the study reported here, 40 Portuguese-Luxembourgish bilingual children from low-income immigrant families in Luxembourg and 40 matched monolingual children from Portugal completed visuospatial tests of working memory, abstract reasoning, selective attention, and interference suppression. Two broad cognitive factors of executive functioning-representation (abstract reasoning and working memory) and control (selective attention and interference suppression)-emerged from principal component analysis. Whereas there were no group differences in representation, the bilinguals performed significantly better than did the monolinguals in control. These results demonstrate, first, that the bilingual advantage is neither confounded with nor limited by socioeconomic and cultural factors and, second, that separable aspects of executive functioning are differentially affected by bilingualism. The bilingual advantage lies in control but not in visuospatial representational processes.
| S-EPMC4070309 | biostudies-literature
Project description:OBJECTIVE:Bilingual healthy adults have been shown to exhibit an advantage in executive functioning (EF) that is associated with microstructural changes in white matter (WM) networks. Patients with temporal lobe epilepsy (TLE) often show EF deficits that are associated with WM compromise. In this study, we investigate whether bilingualism can increase cognitive reserve and/or brain reserve in bilingual patients with TLE, mitigating EF impairment and WM compromise. METHODS:Diffusion tensor imaging was obtained in 19 bilingual and 26 monolingual patients with TLE, 12 bilingual healthy controls (HC), and 21 monolingual HC. Fractional anisotropy (FA) and mean diffusivity (MD) were calculated for the uncinate fasciculus (Unc) and cingulum (Cing), superior frontostriatal tract (SFS), and inferior frontostriatal tract (IFS). Measures of EF included Trail Making Test-B (TMT-B) and Delis-Kaplan Executive Function System Color-Word Inhibition/Switching. Analyses of covariance were conducted to compare FA and MD of the Unc, Cing, SFS, and IFS and EF performance across groups. RESULTS:In bilingual patients, FA was lower in the ipsilateral Cing and Unc compared to all other groups. For both patient groups, MD of the ipsilateral Unc was higher relative to HC. Despite more pronounced reductions in WM integrity, bilingual patients performed similarly to monolingual TLE and both HC groups on EF measures. By contrast, monolingual patients performed worse than HC on TMT-B. In addition, differences in group means between bilingual and monolingual patients on TMT-B approached significance when controlling for the extent of WM damage (P = .071; d = 0.62), suggesting a tendency toward higher performance for bilingual patients. SIGNIFICANCE:Despite poorer integrity of regional frontal lobe WM, bilingual patients performed similarly to monolingual patients and HC on EF measures. These findings align with studies suggesting that bilingualism may provide a protective factor for individuals with neurological disease, potentially through reorganization of EF networks that promote greater cognitive reserve.
| S-EPMC7315382 | biostudies-literature
Project description:There is strong epidemiologic evidence to suggest that older adults who maintain an active lifestyle in terms of social, mental, and physical engagement are protected to some degree against the onset of dementia. Such factors are said to contribute to cognitive reserve, which acts to compensate for the accumulation of amyloid and other brain pathologies. We present evidence that lifelong bilingualism is a further factor contributing to cognitive reserve.Data were collected from 211 consecutive patients diagnosed with probable Alzheimer disease (AD). Patients' age at onset of cognitive impairment was recorded, as was information on occupational history, education, and language history, including fluency in English and any other languages. Following this procedure, 102 patients were classified as bilingual and 109 as monolingual.We found that the bilingual patients had been diagnosed 4.3 years later and had reported the onset of symptoms 5.1 years later than the monolingual patients. The groups were equivalent on measures of cognitive and occupational level, there was no apparent effect of immigration status, and the monolingual patients had received more formal education. There were no gender differences.The present data confirm results from an earlier study, and thus we conclude that lifelong bilingualism confers protection against the onset of AD. The effect does not appear to be attributable to such possible confounding factors as education, occupational status, or immigration. Bilingualism thus appears to contribute to cognitive reserve, which acts to compensate for the effects of accumulated neuropathology.
| S-EPMC3033609 | biostudies-other
Project description:Electrical and optical monitoring of neural activity is major approaches for studying brain functions. Each has its own set of advantages and disadvantages, such as the ability to determine cell types and temporal resolution. Although opto-electrical bimodal recording is beneficial by enabling us to exploit the strength of both approaches, it has not been widely used. In this study, we devised three methods of bimodal recording from a deep brain structure in awake head-fixed mice by chronically implanting a gradient-index (GRIN) lens and electrodes. First, we attached four stainless steel electrodes to the side of a GRIN lens and implanted them in a mouse expressing GCaMP6f in astrocytes. We simultaneously recorded local field potential (LFP) and GCaMP6f signal in astrocytes in the hippocampal CA1 area. Second, implanting a silicon probe electrode mounted on a custom-made microdrive within the focal volume of a GRIN lens, we performed bimodal recording in the CA1 area. We monitored LFP and fluorescent changes of GCaMP6s-expressing neurons in the CA1. Third, we designed a 3D-printed scaffold to serve as a microdrive for a silicon probe and a holder for a GRIN lens. This scaffold simplifies the implantation process and makes it easier to place the lens and probe accurately. Using this method, we recorded single unit activity and LFP electrically and GCaMP6f signals of single neurons optically. Thus, we show that these opto-electrical bimodal recording methods using a GRIN lens and electrodes are viable approaches in awake head-fixed mice.
| S-EPMC8760260 | biostudies-literature
Project description:A systematic review was conducted to investigate whether bilingualism has a protective effect against cognitive decline in aging and can protect against dementia. We searched the Medline, ScienceDirect, Scopus, and ERIC databases with a cut-off date of 31 March, 2019, thereby following the guidelines of the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-analysis (PRISMA) protocol. Our search resulted in 34 eligible studies. Mixed results were found with respect to the protective effect of bilingualism against cognitive decline. Several studies showed a protective effect whereas other studies failed to find it. Moreover, evidence for a delay of the onset of dementia of between 4 and 5.5 years in bilingual individuals compared to monolinguals was found in several studies, but not in all. Methodological differences in the set-up of the studies seem to explain these mixed results. Lifelong bilingualism is a complex individual process, and many factors seem to influence this and need to be further investigated. This can be best achieved through large longitudinal studies with objective behavioral and neuroimaging measurements. In conclusion, although some evidence was found for a cognitive reserve-enhancing effect of lifelong bilingualism and protection against dementia, to date, no firm conclusions can be drawn.
| S-EPMC6680432 | biostudies-literature