ArticleProceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America2016
Brain white matter structure and COMT gene are linked to second-language learning in adults.
Article in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, 2016. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 27 papers.
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Who cites it
27 citing papers in PubMed.
- Redefining bilingualism as a spectrum of experiences that differentially affects brain structure and function.Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America · 2019Trial
- Multiscale neural features of tonal bilingualism: linking regional differences in brain network degree centrality to neurotransmitter-gene signatures in Bai-Mandarin bilinguals.Scientific reports · 2026Article
- 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
- White matter plasticity during second language learning within and across hemispheres.Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America · 2024Article
- A Comparison of White Matter Brain Differences in Monolingual and Highly Proficient Multilingual Speakers.Neurobiology of language (Cambridge, Mass.) · 2024Article
- Genetic bases of language control in bilinguals: Evidence from an EEG study.Human brain mapping · 2023Article
- White matter brain structure predicts language performance and learning success.Human brain mapping · 2023Article
- Prognostic and immunomodulatory roles of schizophrenia-associated genes HTR2A, COMT, and PRODH in pan-cancer analysis and glioma survival prediction model.Frontiers in immunology · 2023Article
- A Diffusion Tensor Imaging Study on the White Matter Structures Related to the Phonology in Cantonese-Mandarin Bilinguals.Frontiers in human neuroscience · 2022Article
- Dynamic Effects of Immersive Bilingualism on Cortical and Subcortical Grey Matter Volumes.Frontiers in psychology · 2022Article
- Neurobiological underpinnings of rapid white matter plasticity during intensive reading instruction.NeuroImage · 2021Article
- Examining Individual Differences in Language Learning: A Neurocognitive Model of Language Aptitude.Neurobiology of language (Cambridge, Mass.) · 2021Article
- Bilingualism, Executive Function, and the Brain: Implications for Autism.Neurobiology of language (Cambridge, Mass.) · 2021Review
- The effect of bilingualism on brain development from early childhood to young adulthood.Brain structure & function · 2020Article
- Bilingual Language Experience Shapes Resting-State Brain Rhythms.Neurobiology of language (Cambridge, Mass.) · 2020Article
- Article
- White matter microstructural development and cognitive ability in the first 2 years of life.Human brain mapping · 2019Article
- Neuroemergentism: A Framework for Studying Cognition and the Brain.Journal of neurolinguistics · 2019Article
- Strength of Ventral Tegmental Area Connections With Left Caudate Nucleus Is Related to Conflict Monitoring.Frontiers in psychology · 2019Article
- Future Directions in Examining Neurological Adaptation to Bilingual Experiences.Journal of experimental neuroscience · 2019Article
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5 authors.
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No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Adult human brains retain the capacity to undergo tissue reorganization during second-language learning. Brain-imaging studies show a relationship between neuroanatomical properties and learning for adults exposed to a second language. However, the role of genetic factors in this relationship has not been investigated. The goal of the current study was twofold: (i) to characterize the relationship between brain white matter fiber-tract properties and second-language immersion using diffusion tensor imaging, and (ii) to determine whether polymorphisms in the catechol-O-methyltransferase (COMT) gene affect the relationship. We recruited incoming Chinese students enrolled in the University of Washington and scanned their brains one time. We measured the diffusion properties of the white matter fiber tracts and correlated them with the number of days each student had been in the immersion program at the time of the brain scan. We found that higher numbers of days in the English immersion program correlated with higher fractional anisotropy and lower radial diffusivity in the right superior longitudinal fasciculus. We show that fractional anisotropy declined once the subjects finished the immersion program. The relationship between brain white matter fiber-tract properties and immersion varied in subjects with different COMT genotypes. Subjects with the Methionine (Met)/Valine (Val) and Val/Val genotypes showed higher fractional anisotropy and lower radial diffusivity during immersion, which reversed immediately after immersion ended, whereas those with the Met/Met genotype did not show these relationships. Statistical modeling revealed that subjects' grades in the language immersion program were best predicted by fractional anisotropy and COMT genotype.
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