Link to bioRxiv paper: http://biorxiv.org/cgi/content/short/2020.04.10.035469v1?rss=1 Authors: Blanco, B., Molnar, M., Carreiras, M., Collins-Jones, L. H., Vidal, E., Cooper, R. J., Caballero-Gaudes, C. Abstract: This study examines whether bilingual exposure has a profound effect on the functional organization of the developing human brain during infancy. Recent behavioural research attests that monolingual vs. bilingual experience affects cognitive and linguistic processes already during the first months of life. However, to what extent the intrinsic organization of the infant human brain adapts to monolingual vs. bilingual environments is unclear. We measured spontaneous hemodynamic brain activity using functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS) in a large cohort (N=99) of 4-month-old monolingual and bilingual infants. We implemented well-established analysis approaches of functional brain imaging that enabled us to reveal the functional organization of the infant brain in large-scale cortical networks, and to perform group-level comparisons (i.e., monolingual vs. bilingual groups) in a reliable manner. Our results revealed no differences between the intrinsic functional organization of the developing monolingual and bilingual infant brain at 4 months of age. Copy rights belong to original authors. Visit the link for more info