A multilingual brain is a smarter brain: recent findings from neuroscience and implications for education

Dara Ghahremani, PhDDepartment of Psychiatry, School of Medicine

Semel Institute for Neuroscience and Human BehaviorUCLA

darag@ucla.edu

Multi-linguals

• What do they do that’s different from monolinguals?– Attend to the appropriate language in the context

at hand– Ignore the irrelevant language for that context– Sometimes: rapid switching between languages

The Multilingual Brain

• How different is it from the monolingual brain?

• What behavioral differences are there?• What are the implications

for education?

Brain areas important for language

What’s different about multi-lingual brains?

Abutalebi et al., 2013

Additional brain regions are used for second language

• Attention: – Conflict resolution– Task switching

• Enhanced auditory perception• Short-term memory

Cognitive benefits of multilingualism

Cognitive benefits of multilingualism: attention

• Better at resolving conflict in the “Attention Networks Task”– Task: indicate direction of central arrow

Because other arrowsare in opposite direction,they create interferenceand slow down the response. Conflict resolution abilities arerequired.

Late vs. Early L2 Learners

Tao et al study (2011) of L2 English learners in Australia.3 groups:- English monolinguals- English-Chinese Bilinguals (early learners)- English-Chinese Bilinguals (late learners, > 12 years old)

– Early learners show greater conflict resolution ability than monolinguals

– Late learners show even stronger skills than early learners

Attention can improve even when learning at later stages of development

Brain differences in resolving conflict

Anterior Cingulate Cortex showsmore efficient responding (less response to conflict)

Abutalebi et al., 2012

Cognitive benefits of multilingualism: task switching

• Task switching tests measure how efficiently people can shift between different tasks (or mindsets).

Example of task-switching test

Gold, et al. 2013

Shape blocks: indicate whether triangle or squareColor block: indicate whether blue or redSwitch blocks: mix of color and shape trials (need to switch between the shape and color tasks)

People are slower during the Switch blocksthan the others because of switching between two different tasks

Task switching in multilinguals

• More daily language switching (Finish-Swedish) leads to better ability to switch between tasks (Soveri et al., 2011)

• Older bilinguals show preserved task switching (Gold et al., 2013) – (see next slides)

Gold, et al. 2013

Older (avg. of 65 years)Young (avg. of 32 years)

Older lifelong bilingual adults:- more efficient switching than older

monolingual adults. - similar brain response to young

adults

Enhanced sustained attention to auditory information

Krisman, et al. 2013

Enhanced short-term memory in bilingual children (5-7 years old)

Morales, et al. 2013

Implications for education and cognitive development

• Multi-lingual learning can enhance cognitive development

• Heritage language learners are already primed to have a cognitive advantage due to existing exposure

• Benefits for academic performance and communication skills

• Perhaps protective againstADHD and similar attentionproblems

Conclusions

• Multilinguals show enhanced attention, mental flexibility, auditory perception/attention, and memory

• Even in older age, we can see these advantages reflected in the brain

• Learning multiple languages can only promote better learning and brain development

References• Abutalebi, J., Della Rosa, P. A., Green, D. W., Hernandez, M., Scifo, P., Keim, R., . . .

Costa, A. (2012). Bilingualism tunes the anterior cingulate cortex for conflict monitoring. Cerebral cortex (New York, N.Y. : 1991), 22(9), 2076-2086. doi: 10.1093/cercor/bhr287

• Christoffels, I. K., Kroll, J. F., & Bajo, M. T. (2013). Introduction to bilingualism and cognitive control. Frontiers in psychology, 4, 199-199. doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2013.00199

• Gold, B. T., Kim, C., Johnson, N. F., Kryscio, R. J., & Smith, C. D. (2013). Lifelong bilingualism maintains neural efficiency for cognitive control in aging. The Journal of neuroscience : the official journal of the Society for Neuroscience, 33(2), 387-396. doi: 10.1523/jneurosci.3837-12.2013

• Morales, J., Calvo, A., & Bialystok, E. (2013). Working memory development in monolingual and bilingual children. Journal of experimental child psychology, 114(2), 187-202. doi: 10.1016/j.jecp.2012.09.002

• Soveri, A., Rodriguez-Fornells, A., & Laine, M. (2011). Is There a Relationship between Language Switching and Executive Functions in Bilingualism? Introducing a within group Analysis Approach. Frontiers in psychology, 2, 183-183. doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2011.00183

• Tao, L., Marzecová, A., Taft, M., Asanowicz, D., & Wodniecka, Z. (2011). The efficiency of attentional networks in early and late bilinguals: the role of age of acquisition. Frontiers in psychology, 2, 123-123. doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2011.00123