Event Abstract Back to Event Proficiency and brain structure during intense language learning Johan Mårtensson1*, Johan Eriksson2, Timothy Brick3, Nils Bodammer3, Magnus Lindgren1, Mikael Johansson1, Lars Nyberg1 and Martin Lövdén4 1 Lund University, Sweden 2 Umeå University, Sweden 3 Max Planck Institute for Human Development, Germany 4 Aging Research Center (ARC), Sweden Foreign language acquisition can lead to changes in brain structure in young adults. Conscripts at the Swedish Armed Forces Interpreter Academy undergo highly intense foreign language training and approach near fluency over the course of a year. Structural MRI before and after 3 months of training revealed grey matter increases in the left dorsal middle frontal gyrus, left inferior posterior frontal gyrus, left superior temporal gyrus and the right hippocampus. Grey matter increases were related to language performance, with higher increases in the right hippocampus and left superior temporal gyrus for interpreters with better performance at the end of the semester. In contrast, participants who had to work relatively harder to achieve the goals of the interpreter program exhibited the most widespread cortical change in the middle frontal gyrus. A possible explanation is that participants with larger increases in the middle frontal gyrus put more strain on the articulatory network during acquisition. Preliminary findings from probabilistic tractography between the inferior frontal gyrus and middle frontal gyrus indicate higher increases in fractional anisotropy for individuals who had to work more intensively to achieve the goals of the academy. Change scores were at least partially dependent on starting values with larger increases and more work required for individuals with lower fractional anisotropy scores in part of the articulatory network prior to admission to the academy. Acknowledgements The authors thank the staff at the interpreter academy of Swedish Armed Forces Intelligence and Security Center as well as A-K. Larsson & H-O. Karlsson at UFBI. Keywords: Diffusion Tensor Imaging, language acquisition, cortical thickness, Hippocampus, plasticity Conference: Microstructures of Learning: Novel methods and approaches for assessing structural and functional changes underlying knowledge acquisition in the brain, Lund, Sweden, 23 May - 23 May, 2014. Presentation Type: Oral presentation Topic: Neuroscience Citation: Mårtensson J, Eriksson J, Brick T, Bodammer N, Lindgren M, Johansson M, Nyberg L and Lövdén M (2015). Proficiency and brain structure during intense language learning. Front. Neurosci. Conference Abstract: Microstructures of Learning: Novel methods and approaches for assessing structural and functional changes underlying knowledge acquisition in the brain. doi: 10.3389/conf.fnins.2015.88.00003 Copyright: The abstracts in this collection have not been subject to any Frontiers peer review or checks, and are not endorsed by Frontiers. They are made available through the Frontiers publishing platform as a service to conference organizers and presenters. The copyright in the individual abstracts is owned by the author of each abstract or his/her employer unless otherwise stated. Each abstract, as well as the collection of abstracts, are published under a Creative Commons CC-BY 4.0 (attribution) licence (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) and may thus be reproduced, translated, adapted and be the subject of derivative works provided the authors and Frontiers are attributed. For Frontiers’ terms and conditions please see https://www.frontiersin.org/legal/terms-and-conditions. Received: 04 Mar 2015; Published Online: 05 Mar 2015. * Correspondence: Dr. Johan Mårtensson, Lund University, Lund, Sweden, johan.ma@gmail.com Login Required This action requires you to be registered with Frontiers and logged in. To register or login click here. Abstract Info Abstract The Authors in Frontiers Johan Mårtensson Johan Eriksson Timothy Brick Nils Bodammer Magnus Lindgren Mikael Johansson Lars Nyberg Martin Lövdén Google Johan Mårtensson Johan Eriksson Timothy Brick Nils Bodammer Magnus Lindgren Mikael Johansson Lars Nyberg Martin Lövdén Google Scholar Johan Mårtensson Johan Eriksson Timothy Brick Nils Bodammer Magnus Lindgren Mikael Johansson Lars Nyberg Martin Lövdén PubMed Johan Mårtensson Johan Eriksson Timothy Brick Nils Bodammer Magnus Lindgren Mikael Johansson Lars Nyberg Martin Lövdén Related Article in Frontiers Google Scholar PubMed Abstract Close Back to top Javascript is disabled. Please enable Javascript in your browser settings in order to see all the content on this page.