Neuroplasticity and cognitive reserve effects in the Caudate Nucleus of young bilingual adults
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Published:2023-06-23
Issue:1
Volume:27
Page:107-116
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ISSN:1366-7289
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Container-title:Bilingualism: Language and Cognition
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language:en
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Short-container-title:Bilingualism
Author:
Gallo FedericoORCID,
Terekhina Liliia,
Shtyrov Yury,
Myachykov Andriy
Abstract
AbstractThis study investigates bilingualism-induced neuroplastic and cognitive-reserve effects in the Caudate Nucleus (CN), a structure believed to support both bilingual language control and domain-general executive functioning. We computed a generalized bilingualism index incorporating several dimensions of bilingual experience in a sample of bilingual young adults and tested whether this index would predict behavioral executive performance (measured using a Flanker task) and volumetric differences in the CN. Moreover, we investigated whether bilingualism mitigates the relationship between CN volume and executive performance, a sign of cognitive reserve. Our results indicate that bilingualism facilitates executive performance and induces an inverted U-shaped neuroplastic trajectory in bilateral CN, consistently with the view that structural increases are replaced by functional improvements as bilingual experience progresses. The emergence of bilingualism-induced cognitive reserve effects in CN further supports the view that bilinguals rely progressively less on the availability of structural resources in the face of increased functional efficiency.
Funder
National Research University Higher School of Economics
Publisher
Cambridge University Press (CUP)
Subject
Linguistics and Language,Language and Linguistics,Education
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