ArticleNeuropsychologia2013
Lifelong bilingualism contributes to cognitive reserve against white matter integrity declines in aging.
Article in Neuropsychologia, 2013. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 57 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
57 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it.
- Epilepsy and Bilingualism. A Systematic Review.Frontiers in neurology · 2019Pooled it
- Rethinking language, cognition and assessment in psychosis: How bilingualism challenges psychiatry and how natural language processing can help.Schizophrenia (Heidelberg, Germany) · 2026Review
- White Matter Integrity in Women with Repetitive Traumatic Brain Injury due to Intimate Partner Violence.Journal of neurotrauma · 2025Article
- Use of Multiple Languages Provides Cognitive Reserve Amidst Age-Related White Matter Changes.The journals of gerontology. Series B, Psychological sciences and social sciences · 2025Article
- Music training and language learning improve verbal memory performance but do not change white matter characteristics of the splenium: a longitudinal DTI study.Frontiers in psychology · 2025Article
- Musical Sophistication and Multilingualism: Effects on Arcuate Fasciculus Characteristics.Human brain mapping · 2024Article
- Age-related neural changes underlying long-term recognition of musical sequences.Communications biology · 2024Article
- Large-scale investigation of white matter structural differences in bilingual and monolingual children: An adolescent brain cognitive development data study.Human brain mapping · 2024Article
- A Comparison of White Matter Brain Differences in Monolingual and Highly Proficient Multilingual Speakers.Neurobiology of language (Cambridge, Mass.) · 2024Article
- Resting-state functional connectivity in lifelong musicians.Psychoradiology · 2023Article
- Having a stimulating lifestyle is associated with maintenance of white matter integrity with age.Brain imaging and behavior · 2022Article
- Intraoperative Brain Mapping in Multilingual Patients: What Do We Know and Where Are We Going?Brain sciences · 2022Review
- The neuroanatomical consequences and pathological implications of bilingualism.Journal of anatomy · 2022Review
- Increased Gray Matter Volume Induced by Chinese Language Acquisition in Adult Alphabetic Language Speakers.Frontiers in psychology · 2022Article
- A Diffusion Tensor Imaging Study on the White Matter Structures Related to the Phonology in Cantonese-Mandarin Bilinguals.Frontiers in human neuroscience · 2022Article
- Bilingualism and Aging: Implications for (Delaying) Neurocognitive Decline.Frontiers in human neuroscience · 2022Review
- Add Bilingualism to the Mix: L2 Proficiency Modulates the Effect of Cognitive Reserve Proxies on Executive Performance in Healthy Aging.Frontiers in psychology · 2022Article
- Bilingualism: Pathway to Cognitive Reserve.Trends in cognitive sciences · 2021Review
- Poorer clinical outcomes for older adult monolinguals when matched to bilinguals on brain health.Brain structure & function · 2021Article
- Effects of Lifelong Musicianship on White Matter Integrity and Cognitive Brain Reserve.Brain sciences · 2021Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
3 authors.
Funding
Abstract
Recent evidence suggests that lifelong bilingualism may contribute to cognitive reserve (CR) in normal aging. However, there is currently no neuroimaging evidence to suggest that lifelong bilinguals can retain normal cognitive functioning in the face of age-related neurodegeneration. Here we explored this issue by comparing white matter (WM) integrity and gray matter (GM) volumetric patterns of older adult lifelong bilinguals (N=20) and monolinguals (N=20). The groups were matched on a range of relevant cognitive test scores and on the established CR variables of education, socioeconomic status and intelligence. Participants underwent high-resolution structural imaging for assessment of GM volume and diffusion tensor imaging (DTI) for assessment of WM integrity. Results indicated significantly lower microstructural integrity in the bilingual group in several WM tracts. In particular, compared to their monolingual peers, the bilingual group showed lower fractional anisotropy and/or higher radial diffusivity in the inferior longitudinal fasciculus/inferior fronto-occipital fasciculus bilaterally, the fornix, and multiple portions of the corpus callosum. There were no group differences in GM volume. Our results suggest that lifelong bilingualism contributes to CR against WM integrity declines in aging.
Indexed as
Identifiers
What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.