Second language use rather than second language knowledge relates to changes in white matter microstructure
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RESEARCH PAPER
Second language use rather than second language knowledge relates to changes in white matter microstructure Nicola Del Maschio . Simone Sulpizio . Michelle Toti . Camilla Caprioglio . Gianpaolo Del Mauro . Davide Fedeli . Jubin Abutalebi
Received: 9 July 2019 / Revised: 29 August 2019 / Accepted: 9 September 2019 Ó Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd. 2019
Abstract Learning and learning to regulate more than one language is shown to have an impact on the structural connectivity of the brain in networks related to language processing and executive control. The available evidence remains however variable in terms of the occurrence, localization and extent of these effects. Variability likely depends on the fact that grouping heterogeneous linguistic profiles under a dichotomous condition (bilingualism vs. monolingualism) may obscure critical aspects of language experience underlying white matter changes. Here, we treated the main quantifiable features in which bilingual experience can be partitioned—that is, age of acquisition, proficiency and use of a second language—as continuous variables, and tested their effects on a sample of young adult participants. Findings indicate that the time spent using a second language, rather than the age of acquisition or knowledge of that language, significantly modulates white matter microstructure in a bilateral cingulofrontal cluster encompassing structures primarily related to language control. Taken together, these data point to a usage-dependent remodeling of cingulofrontal connections, and substantiate the
N. Del Maschio (&) S. Sulpizio M. Toti C. Caprioglio G. Del Mauro D. Fedeli J. Abutalebi Centre for Neurolinguistics and Psycholinguistics (CNPL), Vita-Salute San Raffaele University, Via Olgettina, 58, 20132 Milan, Italy e-mail: [email protected]
conceptualization of bilingualism as a complex and dynamic experience. Keywords Bilingualism Second language use Structural connectivity White matter microstructure
Introduction There is extensive evidence from both humans and animal models that skill learning is associated with dynamic changes in the brain’s white matter (WM), neural tissue mainly composed of myelinated axons which enable efficient information transfer between different parts of the brain. Longitudinal MRI studies in humans have shown that learning/training activities such as piano practicing (Bengtsson et al. 2005), spatial learning (Hofstetter et al. 2013) or working memory training (Takeuchi et al. 2010) impact WM microstructure in pathways that are functionally relevant to the learned or improved skill. Activitydependent myelination—either via new myelin formation or via myelin remodelling of already myelinated tracts—has been recently indicated as a putative mechanism by which the structural properties of brain connections may be shaped by experience-related factors, ultimately resulting in behavioural adaptation (Fields 2015; Fields and Dutta 2019). Converging evidence ha
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