Poster Presentation

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Does Bilingual Experience affect Cortical Thickness in ADHD?

Poster Session D, Saturday, September 13, 5:00 - 6:30 pm, Field House

Anushka Oak1, Iria S. Gutierrez-Schieferl, Guinevere F. Eden; 1Georgetown University

Objective: Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) is a prevalent neurodevelopmental disorder characterized by inattentive, hyperactive or impulsive symptoms and attributed to dysfunction of the cortico-striato-thalamo-cortical-loop (Barkley et al., 2006). Some studies have found less cortical thickness (CT) in children with ADHD (Silk et al. 2016; Shaw et al., 2006; Narr et al., 2009) in prefrontal, parietal, and occipital cortices, but others have not (Ambrosino et al., 2017; Wolosin et al., 2009; Bernanke et al., 2022; Sarabin et al., 2023; Baboli et al., 2022; Owens et al., 2021, with the four latter reports based on ABCD Study data). In a separate line of research, CT has been shown to differ in bilinguals (Pliatsikas et al., 2020; Vaughn et al., 2021, the latter report based on ABCD Study data). Given the purported modification of executive control in bilinguals (Bialystok et al., 2009), it is important to investigate the potential modulating role of bilingualism on CT in ADHD. Here we tested whether there is an interactive effect of ADHD and an early dual-language experience on CT. Methods: We selected children from the Adolescent Brain & Cognitive Development (ABCD) Study based on a standard score of around >70 on Matrix Reasoning and Picture Vocabulary tests. ADHD Group inclusion criteria was >65 on the Child Behavioral Checklist (CBCL) Attention Syndrome Scale and Control Group < 65. Demographic surveys (Youth Acculturation Survey and Parent Demographics Survey) were used to select cultural early Spanish-English bilinguals and native English monolinguals. Next, propensity matching was used to equate all four groups on socioeconomic status (combined income), Matrix Reasoning, and Picture Vocabulary scores and resulted in 59 Bilingual ADHD, 56 Bilingual Control, 53 Monolingual ADHD, and 59 Monolingual Control participants (average age 9.9 years). Structural magnetic resonance images underwent surface-based morphometry in the CAT12 toolbox of SPM12 and a 2x2 ANOVA (with sex, study site, age, CBCL Anxiety/Depression Syndrome Scale, medication, as covariates of no interest) to test for the main effects of Diagnostic Group, Language Background, and their interactions (voxel-wise height threshold p < .005 uncorrected, cluster-level extent threshold p < .05 FDR). Results: There was no main effect of Diagnostic Group nor an interaction for Diagnostic Group and Language Background. The main effect of Language Background revealed less CT in bilinguals in left superior frontal, middle frontal, inferior frontal, middle frontal and middle occipital gyri, superior temporal pole, and supplementary motor area; and in the right middle frontal, postcentral, inferior temporal, middle temporal, and middle occipital gyri, precuneus, superior temporal pole and supplementary motor area. Conclusion: Our main effects results were as expected based on prior studies of ADHD and of bilingualism (in the ABCD data set): No CT differences in ADHD relative to Controls, while Bilinguals had less CT than Monolinguals throughout the frontal, temporal and occipital lobes of both hemispheres (including areas associated with executive control). Importantly, there was no differential effect for an early dual-language experience on CT in ADHD.

Topic Areas: Multilingualism, Disorders: Developmental

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