title: Neuroimaging of the bilingual brain: Structural brain correlates of listening and speaking in a second language.
abstract: Diffusion tensor imaging was used to compare white matter structure between American monolingual and Spanish-English bilingual adults living in the United States. In the bilingual group, relationships between white matter structure and naturalistic immersive experience in listening to and speaking English were additionally explored. White matter structural differences between groups were found to be bilateral and widespread. In the bilingual group, experience in listening to English was more robustly correlated with decreases in radial and mean diffusivity in anterior white matter regions of the left hemisphere, whereas experience in speaking English was more robustly correlated with increases in fractional anisotropy in more posterior left hemisphere white matter regions. The findings suggest that (a) foreign language immersion induces neuroplasticity in the adult brain, (b) the degree of alteration is proportional to language experience, and (c) the modes of immersive language experience have more robust effects on different brain regions and on different structural features.
authors.affiliation: Institute for Learning & Brain Sciences, University of Washington, Seattle, WA 98195, USA. Electronic address: pkkuhl@uw.edu.
authors.forename: Patricia K
authors.initials: PK
authors.lastname: Kuhl
authors.affiliation: Institute for Learning & Brain Sciences, University of Washington, Seattle, WA 98195, USA. Electronic address: mrjeffs@uw.edu.
authors.forename: Jeff
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Stevenson
authors.affiliation: Institute for Learning & Brain Sciences, University of Washington, Seattle, WA 98195, USA; Department of Radiology, University of Washington, Seattle, WA 98195, USA. Electronic address: nevao@uw.edu.
authors.forename: Neva M
authors.initials: NM
authors.lastname: Corrigan
authors.affiliation: Institute for Learning & Brain Sciences, University of Washington, Seattle, WA 98195, USA. Electronic address: jasperb@uw.edu.
authors.forename: Jasper J F
authors.initials: JJF
authors.lastname: van den Bosch
authors.affiliation: Institute for Learning & Brain Sciences, University of Washington, Seattle, WA 98195, USA. Electronic address: dilara.deniz@gmail.com.
authors.forename: Dilara Deniz
authors.initials: DD
authors.lastname: Can
authors.affiliation: Institute for Learning & Brain Sciences, University of Washington, Seattle, WA 98195, USA; Department of Radiology, University of Washington, Seattle, WA 98195, USA. Electronic address: toddr@uw.edu.
authors.forename: Todd
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Richards
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D016880:Anisotropy; D001307:Auditory Perception / Q000502:physiology*; D001921:Brain / Q000033:anatomy & histology* / Q000502:physiology*; D001931:Brain Mapping; D056324:Diffusion Tensor Imaging; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D019303:Multilingualism; D009473:Neuronal Plasticity; D013060:Speech / Q000502:physiology*; D014481:United States; D066127:White Matter / Q000033:anatomy & histology / Q000502:physiology; D055815:Young Adult
keywords: Bilingual; Diffusion tensor imaging; Fractional anisotropy; Language immersion; White matter