Enhancement of posterior brain functional networks in bilingual older adults

  1. Jaisalmer de Frutos-Lucas
  2. David López Sanz
  3. Pablo Cuesta
  4. Ricardo Bruña Fernández
  5. Sofía de la Fuente
  6. Noelia Serrano
  7. María Eugenia López García
  8. María Luisa Delgado Losada
  9. Ramón López-Higes Sánchez
  10. Alberto Marcos
  11. Fernando Maestú Unturbe
Revista:
Bilingualism: Language and cognition

ISSN: 1366-7289

Año de publicación: 2020

Volumen: 23

Número: 2

Páginas: 387-400

Tipo: Artículo

DOI: 10.1017/S1366728919000178 DIALNET GOOGLE SCHOLAR

Otras publicaciones en: Bilingualism: Language and cognition

Objetivos de desarrollo sostenible

Resumen

Bilingualism has been said to improve cognition and even delay the onset of Alzheimer's disease (AD). This research aimed to investigate whether bilingualism leaves a neurophysiological trace even when people are highly educated. We expected bilinguals to present better preserved brain functional networks, which could be a trace of higher cognitive reserve. With this purpose, we conducted a magnetoencephalographic study with a group of healthy older adults. We estimated functional connectivity using phase-locking value and found five clusters in parieto-occipital regions in which bilinguals exhibited greater functional connectivity than monolinguals. These clusters included brain regions typically implicated in language processing. Furthermore, these functional changes correlated with caudate volumes (a key region in language shifting and control) in the bilingual sample. Interestingly, decreased Functional Connectivity between posterior brain regions had already been identified as an indicator of aging/preclinical AD but, according to our study, bilingualism seems to exert the opposite effect.