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Individual differences in resting state brain networks involving memory regions in relation to multilingual language experience
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Poster A94 in Poster Session A, Tuesday, October 24, 10:15 am - 12:00 pm CEST, Espace Vieux-Port
This poster is part of the Sandbox Series.
Sevil Maghsadhagh1,2, Olga Kepinska1,2, Irene Balboni3,4, Alessandra Rampinini3, Sayako F. Earle5, Michael T. Ullman6, Raphael Berthelé4, Narly Golestani1,2,3; 1Brain and Language Lab, Cognitive Science Hub, University of Vienna, Vienna, Austria., 2Department of Behavioral and Cognitive Biology, Faculty of Life Sciences, University of Vienna, Vienna, Austria., 3Department of Psychology, Faculty of Psychology and Educational Sciences, University of Geneva, Geneva, Switzerland., 4Institute of Multilingualism, University of Fribourg, Fribourg, Switzerland., 5Department of Communication Sciences and Disorders, University of Delaware, 540 S. College Ave. Suite 220BB, Newark, DE, 19713, USA., 6. Brain and Language Lab, Department of Neuroscience, Georgetown University, Washington, DC, USA.
The neurocognitive effects of multilingualism on human behavior and the brain are well-documented. Brain structural differences between mono- and bilinguals have been observed in areas associated with language, executive control, and memory (Danylkiv & Krafnick, 2020; Hayakawa & Marian, 2019). People who speak multiple languages exhibit a positive correlation between their multilingual experience and the volume of the caudate nucleus, a core component of the executive control and procedural memory networks (Hervais-Adelman et al., 2018). Longitudinal studies have shown that intensive foreign language learning can lead to neuroplastic changes in the brain, with e.g., increased volume of the right hippocampus in interpreters after three months of intense language studies (Mårtensson et al., 2012), and increased gray matter volume in the right hippocampus and left occipital lobe following written foreign vocabulary learning as an episodic memory training paradigm (Bellander et al., 2016). Neural traces of second language proficiency have also been explored using resting state functional MRI (fMRI), uncovering proficiency-related connectivity differences in brain regions involved in cognitive control (Sun et al., 2019). These findings suggest that the cognitive demands of language learning contribute to structural and functional changes in the brain. According to the declarative/procedural memory model for language (Ullman, 2004), different aspects of language learning and processing rely relatively more on declarative versus procedural memory and on their underlying brain networks. Declarative memory is rooted in the hippocampus, and procedural memory is supported by frontal/basal-ganglia circuits, including the caudate nucleus (Ullman, 2004). In the current project, resting state fMRI (rs-fMRI) data from 120 participants with different multilingual language experience (ranging from monolinguals to hyperpolyglots) will be analyzed. The Serial Reaction Time (SRT) (Lum et al., 2013) and Declearn (Hedenius et al., 2013) tests are used to assess procedural and declarative memory, respectively. Additionally, the Language Experience and Proficiency Questionnaire (LEAP-Q) is used to continuously quantify (multilingual) language experience (Marian et al., 2007). Resting state connectivity pattern of hippocampus and the striatal system (as seed regions) will be analyzed. Previous studies have shown that strength and integrity of the resting state connectivity within hippocampal- and striatal-based networks are associated with better memory performance and procedural learning (Doyon et al., 2009; Wang et al., 2006). In the current study we predict that there will be a positive relationship between the connectivity of the hippocampal network and performance on the Declearn test, and between that of the striatal system and the SRT test results. We will furthermore explore whether and how multilingual language experience modulates this relationship; we predict that greater multilingual language experience will strengthen the brain-behavior relationships, with possible individual differences in terms of which system and memory strategy individuals most rely on. Results will have implications regarding the impact of multilingualism on memory skill and on the at-rest brain functional connectivity patterns underlying it, and regarding the relative reliance on the two memory systems in multilingualism.
Topic Areas: Computational Approaches, Multilingualism