About this srcd poster session

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Panel information
Panel 11. Language, Communication

Abstract

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Auditory selective attention is a fundamental executive functioning (EF) skill that allows us to flexibly attend to a target auditory input while inhibiting competing noise. This skill is critical for speech perception in noisy environments such as schools. An extensive body of research finds that bilingual children may have enhanced EF due to constant training in using one and inhibiting another language daily (Bialystok & Martin, 2012; Poulin-Dubois et al., 2011). Recent studies showing null evidence to this phenomenon, however, suggest that there might be more nuance to the bilingualism-EF relationship. Given the vast individual variation across bilinguals (i.e., country/culture of origin, age of exposure, proficiency, number of languages understood/spoken, etc.), it is important to consider more fine-grained differences in mechanisms of how language experiences might affect the development of EF.

The current study aims to investigate how the brain’s language network functions during an auditory selective attention task, and whether this varies across individuals from different backgrounds. Participants were English speakers (either native or later learners) aged 4 years or older visiting a language-themed museum. They reported basic information on demographic (e.g., age, gender, race, ethnicity, education level) and linguistic background (level of understanding, speaking, and reading in other languages; age of acquisition). They then completed a 10-minute auditory selective attention task while functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS) data was collected from bilateral inferior frontal gyrus (IFG) and superior temporal gyrus (STG) language regions. Participants heard 15-second stories in English in three different conditions (six trials per condition): normally played in both ears (binaural condition), backwards in both ears (backward condition), and two different stories in each ear – one male voice, one female (dichotic condition). They were instructed to always listen to the female voice. After each forward and dichotic trial, participants were asked a simple comprehension question and pressed the screen to respond. After each question-answer period there was a 6 second countdown to account for the blood-oxygen-level-dependent (BOLD) signal delay.

A total of n=178 (age range = 4-85 years) participants completed the study, and we report results from the subset of n=60 child participants (Range=4-14; Mage=9.63; SD=2.62; n=25 male). Mixed effects models were used to examine accuracy and reaction time on the comprehension questions. Interestingly, participants were more accurate (B=.06, p =.047) and faster (B=-0.42, p=0.008) on dichotic trials, perhaps because they focused harder. Older children responded more accurately (B=0.05, p<.001) and faster (B= -0.17, p=.034). Bilinguals were marginally more accurate (B=0.08, p=.08), but not faster or slower than monolinguals. fNIRS neuroimaging data analyses are ongoing and will reveal individual differences in activation patterns for the auditory selective attention task across participants.

In conclusion, this study will reveal important neurocognitive mechanisms of EF-elicited activation in the higher-order language network and how these mechanisms vary across participants with monolingual/bilingual experiences from early childhood to adolescence.

Author information

Author	Role
Gavkhar Abdurokhmonova, University of Maryland	Presenting author
Rachel Romeo, University of Maryland	Non-presenting author

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