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Multilingualism and spatial grids: insights into neuro-cognitive reserve underlying language learning
Poster Session C, Thursday, October 1, 10:45 am - 12:45 pm, Wangari Maathai
Sevil Maghsadhagh1, Olga Kepinska2, Marcia Bécu3, Irene Balboni4, Alessandra Rampinini4, Tobias Kober5, Christian F. Doeller3,6, Narly Golestani1,4,7; 1Department of Behavioral and Cognitive Biology, Faculty of Life Sciences, University of Vienna, Vienna, Austria., 2Laboratoire Parole et Langage, Aix-Marseille Université, Aix-en-Provence, France., 3Kavli Institute for Systems Neuroscience, Norwegian University of Science and Technology, Trondheim, Norway., 4Department of Psychology, Faculty of Psychology and Educational Sciences, University of Geneva, Geneva, Switzerland., 5Siemens Healthineers AG, Research & Clinical Translation, Magnetic Resonance, Erlangen, Germany., 6Department of Psychology, Max Planck Institute for Human Cognitive and Brain Sciences, Leipzig, Germany., 7Department of Developmental and Educational Psychology Faculty of Psychology, Faculty of Psychology, University of Vienna, Vienna, Austria.
Bilingualism engages domain-general cognitive mechanisms (Ullman, 2016; Ye & Zhou, 2009), and has been associated with structural and functional brain differences (Hervais-Adelman et al., 2018; Voits et al., 2022), episodic memory advantages (Golshani et al., 2024) as well as cognitive and neural reserve (Bialystok, 2021; Venugopal et al., 2024). The entorhinal cortex (EC) is part of declarative memory system involved in language learning and processing (Ullman, 2004). It also generates grid-like activity—a hexadirectional modulation of fMRI BOLD signal as a function of movement direction during spatial navigation (Doeller et al., 2010). The EC is among the earliest brain regions affected by neurodegeneration in Alzheimer’s disease (Braak & Del Tredici, 2011), and grid-like responses are compromised in older adults (Stangl et al., 2018) and in young adults at genetic risk for Alzheimer’s disease (APOE-ε4 carriers) (Kunz et al., 2015). Grid-like EC activity has also been observed during a semantic task (Viganò et al., 2021), suggesting that multilingualism may place higher demands on this system, since knowing more than one language entails managing multiple linguistic mappings. Together, these findings raise the question of whether cognitively enriching experiences that engage the medial temporal memory system—like multilingual language experience—may strengthen the grid-like function of the EC, even during a non-linguistic task known to engage this system. In 107 healthy young adults (age range: 18–47 years; M = 24.92, SD = 6.44; 72 female) we asked whether greater multilingualism is associated with (a) higher grid-like activation in EC and (b) higher EC volume. We used Language Experience and Proficiency Questionnaire (LEAP-Q) (Marian et al., 2007) to calculate a continuous measure of multilingual language experience which weighs each spoken language by its spoken proficiency. Participants performed a virtual object-location memory task during fMRI, which has previously been shown to elicit grid–like representations (Kunz et al., 2015). Grid analyses were conducted using the GridCAT toolbox (Stangl et al., 2017), and FreeSurfer parcellation (Fischl, 2012) was used to derive EC volumes. Grid orientation was estimated in half of the data (training), and hexadirectional modulation was tested in the second half. Second-level hexadirectional contrast maps revealed a significant positive association between multilingual language experience and grid-like activation in bilateral EC, controlling for age, sex, handedness, education, and navigation performance. Multilingual experience was also positively associated with right EC volume, converging with the functional result. Conversely, individual differences in language aptitude – assessed using phonological perception and production, grammatical sensitivity, and rote learning measures – did not show relationships with grid-like responses nor with EC volume. These findings provide the first evidence that multilingual language experience is associated with stronger spatial computations within the EC. This relationship may arise from the functional and structural plasticity fostered by multilingualism, rather than from overall language aptitude. Managing multiple linguistic mappings may place sustained demands on the entorhinal system, thereby strengthening grid-like computation through experience-dependent plasticity. Our findings extend prior evidence that bilingualism promotes hippocampal structural plasticity and enhances episodic memory, and further underscore the role of language experience in entorhinal spatial function.
Topic Areas: Multilingualism,