The behavioral and neurocognitive effects of bilingual experience on cognitive control and language processing: Implications for aging in two languages

项目概要/摘要 健康的老龄化会对认知和语言功能的特定方面产生负面影响， 对日常生活的决定和行动至关重要。理解和促进成功老龄化的关键是 确定生活方式因素的影响，如双语对特定神经认知功能的影响。双语者 他们在如何、何时、何地使用自己的语言方面的经验各不相同，但很少有研究 date研究了双语经历的多样性对语言和认知功能以及大脑的影响 organization.在这里，我们利用尖端的认知神经科学方法来研究如何 语言使用的社会多样性的差异可能会调节双语对语言的影响， 认知功能的变化。这样做，这项研究将有助于我们了解 大脑如何协调对人们生活经历的需求的反应， 参与语言和认知控制的神经生物系统是可塑的。 该项目有三个具体目标。第一个是在语言的寿命轨迹之间建立联系 经验，以及这可能如何差异调节双语对认知功能的影响。到 检查双语语言经验的变异性和认知控制，法语-英语双语者 年龄在18-75岁之间的人将完成一系列语言和认知测量。参与者将 还可以管理一个新的衡量语言熵的标准，它表征了语言使用的多样性， 社会领域。蒙特利尔为测试这些经验因素的影响提供了一个有价值的测试平台， 保持相对恒定的其他人口因素，已知影响语言和认知 功能（例如，SES，教育）。其次，这项建议旨在确定终身双语在多大程度上 为年龄相关的语言能力下降提供补偿。我们测试认知到什么程度 控制是从事在语言处理和如何保存认知控制能力的老化影响 语言表现。最后，神经影像学研究表明，双语与结构性 然而，双语者的语言使用环境在多大程度上调节了这些差异。 分歧仍然不清楚。因此，我们的目标是阐明与双语相关的适应性变化的神经基础。 语言体验贯穿整个成年生活。识别这些变化不仅会对 进一步了解健康的神经可塑性和大脑如何适应不同的经验，但将 也为理解非典型大脑发育和神经系统疾病奠定了基础（例如，学习 残疾，中风）在我们越来越多的双语人口。总之，认知科学和语言科学 麦吉尔大学的社区提供了一个非常适合作为一个丰富的训练场的环境 在双语和认知老化，并在使用神经科学的方法;这项培训将提供申请人 随着她走向独立的研究生涯，跨学科的技能和知识。

Project Summary/Abstract Healthy aging negatively affects performance in specific aspects of cognitive and language function that are crucial for everyday life decisions and actions. Crucial to understanding and promoting successful aging is determining the impact of lifestyle factors such as bilingualism for particular neurocognitive functions. Bilinguals vary in their experience with respect to how, when, and where they use their languages, yet little research to date has examined the impact of diversity of bilingual experiences on language and cognitive function and brain organization. Here, we capitalize upon cutting edge cognitive neuroscience methods to investigate how differences in the social diversity of language use may modulate the impact of bilingualism on language and cognitive functioning over the adult lifespan. In doing so, this research will contribute to our knowledge about how the brain orchestrates its response to the demands of people’s life experiences and the extent to which neurobiological systems involved in language and cognitive control are plastic. This project has three specific aims. The first is to establish a link between the lifespan trajectory of language experience and how this may differentially modulate the impact of bilingualism on cognitive functioning. To examine variability in bilingual language experience, and cognitive control, French-English bilingual speakers ranging from 18-75 years of age will complete a battery of linguistic and cognitive measures. Participants will also be administered a new measure of language entropy, which characterizes diversity of language use across social spheres. Montreal provides a valuable test bed for testing the impact of these experiential factors while holding relatively constant other demographic factors that are known to influence language and cognitive functions (e.g., SES, education). Second, this proposal aims to determine the extent to which lifelong bilingualism provides compensation against age-related declines in language performance. We test to what extent cognitive control is engaged during language processing and how preserved cognitive control abilities in aging affects language performance. Finally, neuroimaging research shows that bilingualism is associated with structural differences in the brain; however, the extent to which bilinguals’ contexts of language use modulates these differences remains unclear. Thus, we aim to spell out the neural bases of adaptive changes related to bilingual language experience throughout the adult lifespan. Identifying these changes will not only have implications for further understanding healthy neuroplasticity and how the brain adapts to different kinds of experience, but will also lay the groundwork for understanding atypical brain development and neurological disorders (e.g., learning disabilities, stroke) in our increasingly bilingual population. Altogether, the cognitive and language science community at McGill University provides an environment that is exceptionally suited as a rich training ground in bilingualism and cognitive aging and in using neuroscience methods; this training will provide the applicant with interdisciplinary skills and knowledge as she moves towards an independent research career.