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Neuroplasticity and cognitive reserve effects in the Caudate Nucleus of young bilingual adults

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  23 June 2023

Federico Gallo Open the ORCID record for Federico Gallo [Opens in a new window] ,
Liliia Terekhina ,
Yury Shtyrov  and
Andriy Myachykov
Federico Gallo*
Affiliation:
Centre for Cognition and Decision Making, Institute for Cognitive Neuroscience, National Research University Higher School of Economics, Moscow, Russian Federation Centre for Neurolinguistics and Psycholinguistics, Vita-Salute San Raffaele University, Milan, Italy
Liliia Terekhina
Affiliation:
Centre for Cognition and Decision Making, Institute for Cognitive Neuroscience, National Research University Higher School of Economics, Moscow, Russian Federation
Yury Shtyrov
Affiliation:
Center of Functionally Integrative Neuroscience, Aarhus University, Aarhus, Denmark
Andriy Myachykov
Affiliation:
Centre for Cognition and Decision Making, Institute for Cognitive Neuroscience, National Research University Higher School of Economics, Moscow, Russian Federation Northumbria University, Newcastle-upon-Tyne, United Kingdom
*
Corresponding Author: Dr Federico Gallo Centre for Cognition and Decision Making, Institute for Cognitive Neuroscience, National Research University Higher School of Economics Krivokolenniy Pereulok, 3, Entrance 2, Moscow, Russian Federation E-mail: fgallo@hse.ru
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Abstract

This 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.

Keywords

bilingual experiencecaudate nucleusexecutive functionsstructural MRIcognitive reserveFlanker task
Type
Research Article
Information
Bilingualism: Language and Cognition , Volume 27 , Issue 1 , January 2024 , pp. 107 - 116
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Copyright
Copyright © The Author(s), 2023. Published by Cambridge University Press

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