Zheng Yifan, Denervaud Solange, Durrleman Stephanie
Department of Neuroscience and Movement Science, Faculty of Science and Medicine, University of Fribourg, Fribourg, Switzerland.
Department of Neurology, Guangdong Provincial Key Laboratory of Diagnosis and Treatment of Major Neurological Diseases, National Key Clinical Department and Key Discipline of Neurology, The First Affiliated Hospital, Sun Yat-sen University, Guangzhou, China.
Front Hum Neurosci. 2023 Jan 6;16:1058803. doi: 10.3389/fnhum.2022.1058803. eCollection 2022.
Numerous studies have demonstrated the benefits of creativity from bilingualism. Divergent thinking and convergent thinking are considered the two most important components of creativity. Various (although not all) studies have concluded that bilingual children outperform monolingual children in divergent thinking, however, no study on children or adolescents so far has explored the relation between bilingualism and convergent thinking, or the brain structural basis of interaction between bilingualism and creativity. This study aimed to explore the impact of bilingualism on both convergent and divergent thinking in children and adolescents based on neuropsychological assessments, and the possible structural basis of the effect of bilingualism on creativity by a whole-brain analysis of regional gray matter volume (rGMV) and cortical thickness in children and adolescents.
92 healthy children and adolescents of age 4-18 were recruited from public or private schools in the French-speaking side of Switzerland. Demographic data of the participants were collected, including gender, age, pedagogy, usage of language, and parents' socioeconomic status. Most of the participants underwent the neuropsychological assessments of divergent thinking, convergent thinking, and fluid intelligence. Structural image data of 75 participants were analyzed. Both voxel-based morphometry (VBM) and surface-based morphometry (SBM) were processed, to perform the analyses of rGMV and cortical thickness respectively.
The outcomes indicated that convergent thinking, but not divergent thinking benefits from bilingualism in children and adolescents. However, this bilingual advantage appears to weaken across development. Unexpectedly, no significant correlation between morphometry and bilingualism was found. Neither divergent thinking scores nor convergent thinking scores showed any significant correlation with rGMV. However, the whole brain SBM showed that the cortical thickness in the right supplementary motor area (SMA) was negatively correlated with convergent thinking scores, which suggested that the children and adolescents with higher convergent thinking abilities may have thinner, more mature, and more activated cortex in the right SMA.
Bilingualism and cortical thinness in the right SMA might facilitate convergent thinking independently, by enhancing this selective ability.
众多研究已证实双语对创造力有益。发散性思维和聚合性思维被认为是创造力的两个最重要组成部分。各种（尽管并非所有）研究得出结论，双语儿童在发散性思维方面表现优于单语儿童，然而，迄今为止尚无关于儿童或青少年的研究探讨双语与聚合性思维之间的关系，或双语与创造力相互作用的脑结构基础。本研究旨在基于神经心理学评估探讨双语对儿童和青少年聚合性思维和发散性思维的影响，以及通过对儿童和青少年的区域灰质体积（rGMV）和皮质厚度进行全脑分析，研究双语对创造力产生影响的可能结构基础。
从瑞士法语区的公立或私立学校招募了92名4至18岁的健康儿童和青少年。收集了参与者的人口统计学数据，包括性别、年龄、教学法、语言使用情况以及父母的社会经济地位。大多数参与者接受了发散性思维、聚合性思维和流体智力的神经心理学评估。对75名参与者的结构图像数据进行了分析。分别进行了基于体素的形态计量学（VBM）和基于表面的形态计量学（SBM）处理，以分别分析rGMV和皮质厚度。
结果表明，儿童和青少年的聚合性思维而非发散性思维得益于双语。然而，这种双语优势似乎在整个发育过程中会减弱。出乎意料的是，未发现形态计量学与双语之间存在显著相关性。发散性思维得分和聚合性思维得分均与rGMV无显著相关性。然而，全脑SBM显示，右侧辅助运动区（SMA）的皮质厚度与聚合性思维得分呈负相关，这表明聚合性思维能力较高的儿童和青少年在右侧SMA可能具有更薄、更成熟且更活跃的皮质。
双语和右侧SMA的皮质变薄可能通过增强这种选择能力而独立促进聚合性思维。
