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Prediction of individual language and literacy trajectories in multilingual children based on white matter microstructure
Poster Session E, Friday, October 2, 11:00 am - 1:00 pm, Wangari Maathai
This poster is part of the Sandbox Series.
Simon Rammerstorfer1, Alexandra Schreiber1,2, Hanna Schneider1,2, Carmen Providoli1,2,3, Alice Gilmet1,2,3, Theresa Dischner1,2,3, Sarah V. Di Pietro1,3, Silvia Brem1,2,3,4, Iliana I. Karipidis1,2,4; 1University Hospital of Psychiatry Zurich, University of Zurich, 2Neuroscience Center Zurich, University of Zurich and ETH Zurich, 3University Research Priority Program (URPP), Adaptive Brain Circuits in Development and Learning (AdaBD), University of Zurich, 4Competence Center of Language and Medicine, University of Zurich
Children growing up with different multilingual experiences show substantial variability in their language and reading development, but the neurobiological mechanisms underlying these differences remain poorly understood. Previous studies have linked bilingualism to structural variation in reading-related white matter pathways (Mohades et al., 2012; Quartarone et al., 2022; Ronderos et al., 2024). However, many of these studies rely on categorical group comparisons between monolingual and bilingual individuals that may overlook important individual differences in how children acquire and use multiple languages. Factors such as language exposure, age of acquisition, proficiency, and intensity of language use may influence the neurodevelopment of the brain's language and literacy circuits across childhood (Kaushanskaya et al., 2020; Pliatsikas et al., 2020; Ronderos et al., 2024). In a longitudinal MRI study, we aim to examine whether individual differences in multilingual experience relate to variability of structural properties in reading-related white matter pathways and reading development across middle childhood (Bonte & Brem, 2024). Middle childhood is particularly relevant because both reading skills and white matter maturation change rapidly during this time (Chyl et al., 2021; Pliatsikas et al., 2020; Ronderos et al., 2024). To characterize multilingual experience, we will combine measures of language exposure, age of acquisition, and self-reported proficiency from the Language Experience and Proficiency Questionnaire (LEAP-Q) questionnaire (Kaushanskaya et al., 2020; Marian et al., 2007) to derive language entropy estimates reflecting the diversity and balance of children’s language use across contexts (Gullifer et al., 2018; Gullifer & Titone, 2021). We will collect diffusion tensor imaging (DTI) data at baseline together with longitudinal language and reading measures across three time points from children aged 5-12 years with different language backgrounds and experiences (n ≈ 150). The Learning Variability Network Exchange (LEVANTE) framework (Frank et al., 2025) will be implemented to assess language and reading skills, including measures of phonological, lexical-semantic, and grammatical processing, as well as word- and sentence-level reading tasks adapted from the Rapid Online Assessment of Reading (ROAR) framework (Yeatman et al., 2021). These measures will allow us to model individual language and reading trajectories. Analyses will focus on microstructural properties of dorsal and ventral reading-related white matter tracts, including the arcuate fasciculus (AF), inferior longitudinal fasciculus (ILF), and inferior fronto-occipital fasciculus (IFOF). Previous work has linked these pathways to phonological, orthographic, and semantic aspects of reading and language processing, as well as to white matter changes associated with reading development across childhood (Chyl et al., 2021; Pınar et al., 2025; Quartarone et al., 2022). We hypothesize that multilingual experience during childhood is associated with variation in reading-related white matter microstructure, which may in turn predict individual differences in language and reading development over time (Lallier et al., 2026; Mohades et al., 2012; Ronderos et al., 2024). By examining these relationships longitudinally, this study may provide new insights into how multilingual experience and neurobiology interact during language and reading development across childhood. More broadly, this work may contribute to more individualized and experience-based models of multilingual neurodevelopment.
Topic Areas: Multilingualism, Language Development/Acquisition