Children who use Greek alongside English in a wide range of daily activities tend to show stronger connections in brain networks involved in attention and cognitive control, a new study suggests. The findings indicate that children’s bilingual experiences may influence how their brains communicate during an important period of development.
Researchers at University College London studied 36 children who spoke Greek and English and 17 who spoke only English. All were aged 8 to 10. The bilingual children had been exposed to Greek from birth and attended English-speaking schools in Britain. The findings were published in “Bilingualism: Language and Cognition.”
The clearest findings emerged in the default mode network, which is active during internally focused thinking, and the frontoparietal control network, which helps regulate attention and mental tasks. Among bilingual children, greater use of Greek across daily activities was associated with stronger connections in these networks, especially on the left side of the brain.
Greek and English use linked to stronger brain connections in children
To investigate, the team used MRI scans to examine the brain’s physical pathways and patterns of communication while children rested. During approximately six minutes of resting scans, children looked at a fixed point on a screen, allowing researchers to study brain activity without a language task.
Parents provided details about when their children began regular exposure to English and how often they used Greek at home, with friends, and during activities such as reading and sports.
Researchers combined this information into a measure of how widely Greek was used across different settings, called a “Greek richness score.” Children with higher scores showed stronger connectivity within the left default mode network and the left frontoparietal control network.
The timing of language exposure also appeared important. Children who began regular exposure to English at younger ages showed greater connectivity in the right default mode network. Earlier exposure was also linked to higher measures of white matter organization in a pathway connecting frontal and parietal brain regions.
Everyday bilingual experiences linked to attention networks
The researchers also compared children who had been exposed to both languages from birth with those who began regular exposure to English later. Those exposed from birth showed stronger default mode network connectivity than the later-exposed bilingual group.
The findings suggest that bilingual experience may affect networks beyond those used primarily for speaking and understanding language. Researchers found that the quality and variety of language use were particularly relevant to patterns of brain connectivity.
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