ArticleBrain structure & function2020
The effect of bilingualism on brain development from early childhood to young adulthood.
Article in Brain structure & function, 2020. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 31 papers.
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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.
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Who cites it
31 citing papers in PubMed, 60 citations in OpenAlex.
- Neuroanatomical differences in early bilingual and monolingual children.bioRxiv : the preprint server for biology · 2026Article
- Early bilingualism as a protective factor against acute post-stroke aphasia.Journal of neurology · 2026Article
- Does bilingualism buffer genetic predispositions to reading difficulties through alterations of structural interhemispheric connectivity? An ABCDbioRxiv : the preprint server for biology · 2026Article
- Bidirectional Cross-Linguistic Interference in Spatial Cognition: Behavioural Evidence from Chinese Learners of French.Behavioral sciences (Basel, Switzerland) · 2026Article
- Missing the Mix: Perceiving Code-Switches as a Mechanism for Bilingual Adaptation.Child development perspectives · 2026Article
- Two Languages and One Aphasia: A Systematic Scoping Review of Primary Progressive Aphasia in Chinese Bilingual Speakers, and Implications for Diagnosis and Clinical Care.Brain sciences · 2025Review
- Early but discontinued exposure to a language exerts lasting effects on white matter architecture in the brain.Communications biology · 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
- The Neurodevelopmental Dynamics of Multilingual Experience During Childhood: A Longitudinal Behavioral, Structural, and Functional MRI Study.Brain sciences · 2025Article
- Neuroanatomy, episodic memory and inhibitory control of persian-kurdish simultaneous bilinguals.Scientific reports · 2024Article
- Why and how to collect representative study samples in educational neuroscience research.Trends in neuroscience and education · 2024Review
- Functional characterization of the language network of polyglots and hyperpolyglots with precision fMRI.Cerebral cortex (New York, N.Y. : 1991) · 2024Article
- Brain gray matter morphometry relates to onset age of bilingualism and theory of mind in young and older adults.Scientific reports · 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
- Subcortical and cerebellar volume differences in bilingual and monolingual children: An ABCD study.Developmental cognitive neuroscience · 2024Article
- Functional characterization of the language network of polyglots and hyperpolyglots with precision fMRI.bioRxiv : the preprint server for biology · 2024Article
- Cortical Thickness Is Related to Variability in Heritage Bilingual Language Proficiency.Translational issues in psychological science · 2023Article
- Dynamic effects of bilingualism on brain structure map onto general principles of experience-based neuroplasticity.Scientific reports · 2023Article
- Bilingualism and Development of Literacy in Children: A Systematic Review.Psychology in Russia : state of the art · 2023Article
- How bilingualism modulates selective attention in children.Scientific reports · 2022Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
6 authors at 5 institutions in 4 countries.
Funding
Abstract
Bilingualism affects the structure of the brain in adults, as evidenced by experience-dependent grey and white matter changes in brain structures implicated in language learning, processing, and control. However, limited evidence exists on how bilingualism may influence brain development. We examined the developmental patterns of both grey and white matter structures in a cross-sectional study of a large sample (n = 711 for grey matter, n = 637 for white matter) of bilingual and monolingual participants, aged 3-21 years. Metrics of grey matter (thickness, volume, and surface area) and white matter (fractional anisotropy and mean diffusivity) were examined across 41 cortical and subcortical brain structures and 20 tracts, respectively. We used generalized additive modelling to analyze whether, how, and where the developmental trajectories of bilinguals and monolinguals might differ. Bilingual and monolingual participants manifested distinct developmental trajectories in both grey and white matter structures. As compared to monolinguals, bilinguals showed: (a) more grey matter (less developmental loss) starting during late childhood and adolescence, mainly in frontal and parietal regions (particularly in the inferior frontal gyrus pars opercularis, superior frontal cortex, inferior and superior parietal cortex, and precuneus); and (b) higher white matter integrity (greater developmental increase) starting during mid-late adolescence, specifically in striatal-inferior frontal fibers. The data suggest that there may be a developmental basis to the well-documented structural differences in the brain between bilingual and monolingual adults.
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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.