Event Details

This event is co-organised by the Multilingualism and Cognition Research Group, the Heritage Language 2 Consortium (HL2C), and UiT’s Center for Language, Brain and Learning (C/LaBL) Brain Domain.

We are delighted to welcome Anders Gabrielsen (UiT The Arctic University of Norway) as our guest speaker in our joint seminar series.

Talk title: Holding it Together Over Time: Multilingual engagement, working memory and resting state brain activity

Abstract:

I will present a paper we just submitted, where we tested the hypothesis that degree of multilingual engagement would contribute to the maintenance of working memory (WM) performance across the adult lifespan, specifically through maintenance of the functional neural architecture supporting it. We tested this using resting state EEG power and the Corsi-Block-Tapping test, using GAMs to test if degree of multilingual engagement modulate WM performance and rs-EEG power throughout the adult lifespan, when other lifestyle factors are controlled for. Our dataset included 139 multilingual speakers (age-range 30-82, Mean Age = 52.9), Norwegian multilinguals with L2 English. We observed that degree of engagement moderates the effects of age on WM performance. Furthermore, the trends seen in rs-EEG outcomes suggest maintenance of the neural capacity for task performance in this domain. Taken together, the results indicate that multilingualism can act as a contributory lifestyle factor which maintains neurocognitive health in the face of declines associated with cognitive aging.

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