Poster project

Age of Acquisition and

English Proficiency are related

to right thalamus and left

nucleus accumbens volumes

Subcortical Volume is Related to Early Learning of a Second Language Yinan Xu; My V.H. Nguyen; Arturo E. Hernandez

Introduction ❖Situational communicative environment → select the appropriate language →

structural adaptations of subcortical brain regions that are key for language control ❖Dynamic Restructuring Model: structural changes vary depending on the amount of

second language practice and exposure. ❖ROI: ❖Basal Ganglia (caudate, putamen, nucleus accumbens) ❖Thalamus ❖Cerebellum

Method ❖8 combined MRI data (215 bilingual + 145 monolingual) ❖A series of analyses were run between volume and SES, AoA, language proficiency for

all sample, monolingual, and bilingual.

Results ❖Monolingual: no English proficiency (L1) effect ❖BILINGUAL ❖No Spanish proficiency (L1) effect ❖English AoA ~ English proficiency* (r = -.43; p < .001) ❖Volume ~ English proficiency * (right thalamus, p = .004; left accumbens, p = .004) ❖Volume ~ English AoA * (right thalamus, p = .02; left accumbens, p = .014) ❖ALL SAMPLE ❖Volume ~ English proficiency* + SES* ❖English proficiency significant (right thalamus, p = .04; left accumbens, p = .04) ❖SES significant (left thalamus, p = .02; right thalamus, p = .02)

Discussion ❖L1 proficiency is unrelated to subcortical volume in both groups ❖Bilingual: Early L2 AoA and greater proficiency are related to greater volume at the

right thalamus and left nucleus accumbens. ❖ Increase in nucleus accumbens volume → dopamine production → cognitive flexibility

English proficiency

English Age of Acquisition