Evidence map›Paper›PMID 32528666›Full record

ArticleF1000Research2020

Early childhood bilingualism: effects on brain structure and function.

Sezgi Goksan, Froso Argyri, Jonathan D Clayden, Frederique Liegeois, Li Wei

Abstract read
In one paragraph

Article in F1000Research, 2020. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 3 papers.

0numbers the graph read from it
0cells of the map it votes in
3citing papers in PubMed
–field-weighted citation impact
1 · What the graph read from 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.

2 · The registry

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.

3 · Its place in the literature

Who cites it

3 citing papers in PubMed.

  1. Genome-Wide by Lifetime Environment Interaction Studies of Brain Imaging Phenotypes.Advanced science (Weinheim, Baden-Wurttemberg, Germany) · 2026
    Article
  2. Article
  3. Article
4 · The record

Corrections and comments

PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.

5 · Who and what money

Authors and funding

5 authors.

Sezgi Goksan *Centre for Applied Linguistics, UCL Institute of Education, 20 Bedford Way, London, WC1H 0AL, UK.ORCID 0000-0001-8836-0614
Froso Argyri *Centre for Applied Linguistics, UCL Institute of Education, 20 Bedford Way, London, WC1H 0AL, UK.
Jonathan D ClaydenDevelopmental Neurosciences Research and Teaching Department, UCL Great Ormond Street Institute of Child Health, 30 Guilford Street, London, WC1N 1EH, UK.ORCID 0000-0002-6608-0619
Frederique LiegeoisDevelopmental Neurosciences Research and Teaching Department, UCL Great Ormond Street Institute of Child Health, 30 Guilford Street, London, WC1N 1EH, UK.
Li WeiCentre for Applied Linguistics, UCL Institute of Education, 20 Bedford Way, London, WC1H 0AL, UK.

Funding

No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.

6 · The paper itself

Abstract

Growing up in a bilingual environment is becoming increasingly common. Yet, we know little about how this enriched language environment influences the connectivity of children's brains. Behavioural research in children and adults has shown that bilingualism experience may boost executive control (EC) skills, such as inhibitory control and attention. Moreover, increased structural and functional (resting-state) connectivity in language-related and EC-related brain networks is associated with increased executive control in bilingual adults. However, how bilingualism factors alter brain connectivity early in brain development remains poorly understood. We will combine standardised tests of attention with structural and resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) in bilingual children. This study will allow us to address an important field of inquiry within linguistics and developmental cognitive neuroscience by examining the following questions: Does bilingual experience modulate connectivity in language-related and EC-related networks in children? Do differences in resting-state brain connectivity correlate with differences in EC skills (specifically attention skills)? How do bilingualism-related factors, such as age of exposure to two languages, language usage and proficiency, modulate brain connectivity? We will collect structural and functional MRI, and quantitative measures of EC and language skills from two groups of English-Greek bilingual children - 20 simultaneous bilinguals (exposure to both languages from birth) and 20 successive bilinguals (exposure to English between the ages of 3 and 5 years) - and 20 English monolingual children, 8-10 years old. We will compare connectivity measures and attention skills between monolinguals and bilinguals to examine the effects of bilingual exposure. We will also examine to what extent bilingualism factors predict brain connectivity in EC and language networks. Overall, we hypothesize that connectivity and EC will be enhanced in bilingual children compared to monolingual children, and each outcome will be modulated by age of exposure to two languages and by bilingual language usage.

Indexed as

Executive FunctionMultilingualismBrainChildChild, PreschoolHumansLanguageReproducibility of ResultsBilingualbrainchildrenexecutive control.languageMRI

Identifiers

PMID32528666
PMCPMC7262573

What OpenQuestion holds

Textmetadata
LicenceCC BY
Read underepoch 390

Registered trials

None linked

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.