Journal
HUMAN BRAIN MAPPING
Volume 42, Issue 15, Pages 4880-4895Publisher
WILEY
DOI: 10.1002/hbm.25587
Keywords
adults; bilingualism; children; fMRI; mathematics
Funding
- Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development [P50 HD40095, R01 HD081078]
- National Science Foundation [SBE 0541953]
- Intellectual and Developmental Disorders Research Center [P30 HD040677]
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The study compared brain activity in English monolinguals and Spanish-English early bilinguals during arithmetic problem-solving using functional magnetic resonance imaging. Results showed no effect of bilingual language experience on brain activity related to arithmetic, suggesting early bilingualism does not influence the neuroanatomy of simple arithmetic.
Prior studies on the brain bases of arithmetic have not focused on (or even described) their participants' language backgrounds. Yet, unlike monolinguals, early bilinguals have the capacity to solve arithmetic problems in both of their two languages. This raises the question whether this ability, or any other experience that comes with being bilingual, affects brain activity for arithmetic in bilinguals relative to monolinguals. Here, we used functional magnetic resonance imaging to compare brain activity in 44 English monolinguals and 44 Spanish-English early bilinguals, during the solving of arithmetic problems in English. We used a factorial design to test for a main effect of bilingual Language Experience. Based on the known modulating roles of arithmetic operation and age, we used two arithmetic tasks (addition and subtraction) and studied two age groups (adults and children). When collapsing across operations and age, we found broad bilateral activation for arithmetic in both the monolingual group and the bilingual group. However, an analysis of variance revealed that there was no effect of Language Experience, nor an interaction of Language Experience with Operation or Age Group. Bayesian analyses within regions of interest chosen for their role in arithmetic further supported the finding of no effect of Language Experience on brain activity underlying arithmetic. We conclude that early bilingualism does not influence the functional neuroanatomy of simple arithmetic.
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