Does bilingualism lead to nonverbal and verbal cognitive reserve in adults with aphasia?

Open Access
- Author:
- Dinsmore, Katelyn
- Area of Honors:
- Communication Sciences and Disorders
- Degree:
- Bachelor of Science
- Document Type:
- Thesis
- Thesis Supervisors:
- Chaleece Sandberg (She/Her), Thesis Supervisor
Carol Anne Miller, Thesis Honors Advisor - Keywords:
- Aphasia
Bilingualism
Cognitive Control
Cognitive Reserve - Abstract:
- This study aims to examine the effects, and potential benefits, of bilingualism on nonverbal and verbal cognitive function in aphasia. 10 English monolingual neurologically intact older adults (MNIOA), 3 Spanish-English bilingual neurologically intact older adults (BNIOA), 8 English monolingual persons with aphasia (MPWA) and 4 Spanish-English bilingual persons with aphasia (BPWA) completed a nonverbal and verbal flanker task to assess nonverbal and verbal cognitive control, respectively. BNIOA and BPWA completed the verbal flanker task in both Spanish and English. Reaction times (RT) and accuracy were recorded. The congruency effect (CE) and sequential congruency effect (SCE) were calculated for RT and accuracy. The study examined the CE and SCE for RT and accuracy in a nonverbal and verbal cognitive control task, across NIOA and PWA, and across mono- and bi-lingual participants. The main hypothesis is that BNIOA and BPWA will demonstrate enhanced nonverbal and verbal cognitive control, characterized by smaller CEs and SCEs, than MNIOA and MPWA respectively. Findings revealed that both BNIOA and BPWA exhibited smaller SCEs in a nonverbal cognitive control task compared to MNIOA and MPWA, respectively, but only BNIOA exhibited smaller SCEs in a verbal cognitive control task compared to MNIOA. In general, these findings suggest that bilingualism may be protective for nonverbal cognitive control in adults with aphasia. The results of this study will help inform treatment practices for BPWA.