The Benefits of Being a Language Broker

The immigrant population in the U.S. continues to grow, from 11.1% in 2000 to 12.9% in 2010, accounting for a population growth of 8.9 million people in the most recent census. This rise in foreign-born citizens implies an increase in the number of childhood language brokers because the brokering practice is inherent in immigrant culture. While the body of research on bilingual individuals is vast, there has been very little attention given to this subgroup of the bilingual population, language brokers, who translate frequently for their non-English speaking family members and friends. This topic is a fairly new area of study, as much research had not emerged until the mid-1990s. Language brokering is understood as an extension of bilingualism. While bilingualism is concentrated around the ability to understand and speak two different languages, language brokering refers to the ability to translate and interpret materials or conversations.

Much of the past research on bilingual individuals has examined the differences in executive function between monolinguals and bilinguals. Executive function (EF) refers to higher order cognitive skills that are comprised of a network of processes that work distinctly yet concurrently to facilitate individuals shifting between tasks or cognitive sets, inhibiting dominant responses, and manipulating as well as updating information in working memory. It has been hypothesized that bilinguals have an advantage in EF over monolinguals because they are constantly employing the executive control system in order to monitor two languages and maintain attention to the target language. The EF advantage has not, however, been investigated in language brokers.

A study by graduate student Valerie Flores seeks to explore how language brokering practices relate to EF using electroencephalography (EEG) methods in order to investigate the time course of EF processes. There are three primary brainwave components implicated in inhibition and shifting: N200, P300, and N450. These waveforms take place at approximately 200, 300, and 450 milliseconds after a stimulus is presented, and the N or P preceding each event-related potential (ERP) component denotes whether they are negative- or positive- going brainwaves. The N200 reflects conflict monitoring, in which the brain is detecting whether conflicting information is present that may require inhibition. The P300 is typically elicited in tasks that require stimulus discrimination or that entail inhibiting an automatic, pre-learned response. The N450 is thought to reflect shifting cognitive sets, in which an individual must select the correct response when competing responses are concurrently active.

Participants in the study were categorized as either active language brokers or non-brokers based on a survey where they were asked to report their brokering experiences. Following this, participants were invited into the lab to complete a series of computerized cognitive tasks while their brainwaves were recorded using electroencephalography (EEG) methods. One of the tasks that participants were asked to complete was the Color-Word Stroop task, which is used as a measure of two executive functions – inhibition and shifting. In this task, participants are asked to name the ink color of a color word, such as YELLOW. They perform congruent blocks, incongruent blocks, and mixed blocks (i.e., congruent and incongruent trials in same block). In the congruent trials, the ink color and the word are the same. In the incongruent trials, the ink color and the word are different. It is at this point that inhibition becomes necessary because participants must inhibit the automatic response to read the word and focus instead on the ink color. When a box is presented around the word, the rules are reversed, thus measuring the participant’s ability to shift cognitive sets.

While the study is ongoing, preliminary results have shown significant differences between the active language brokers and non-broker in the N200 component, where participants were detecting conflicting information that is present. The brokers had steeper amplitudes, initially recruiting more attentional resources. However, when it came to detecting conflict, language brokers required less effort to switch between more automatic processes (i.e., word reading) and inhibitory processes (i.e., identifying ink colors). Therefore, it can be inferred that language brokers may have developed a more automatic “switch” mechanism to monitor conflicting information more effectively.

Another benefit that has been found to being a language broker is in acculturation. A study conducted by Weisskirch et al. sought to explore the differences between active language brokers and non-brokers in terms of acculturation, ethnic socialization, and ethnic identity. Participants were recruited from 14 universities around the U.S., and completed surveys assessing their language brokering experiences, as well as their levels of acculturation, acculturative stress, ethnic socialization and identity, and cultural values.

The study reported significant differences between the active language brokers and non-brokers in cultural heritage values, ethnic identity, and levels of acculturation, with active language brokers scoring higher. Active language brokers reported a greater preservation of their heritage culture compared to non-brokers. Furthermore, the practice was found to be a contributor to the acculturation process. Individuals who broker are forced to not only learn the language more quickly but also the cultural contexts that are present in everyday social exchanges. Therefore, they have more exposure to the American culture and are able to acculturate more quickly. While there is still much research to be done with this population, there seem to be great benefits to serving as a language broker.

Weisskirch, R. S., Kim, S. Y., Zamboanga, B. L., Schwartz, S. J., Bersamin, M., & Umaña-Taylor, A. J. (2011). Cultural influences for college student language brokers. Cultural Diversity and Ethnic Minority Psychology, 17 (1), 43-51. doi: 10.1037/a0021665

Anxiety: a Beast Many Have to Face

            Is clinical anxiety common? Who has to worry about it? What are the psychological disorders associated with anxiety? These are some questions perhaps many of us ask ourselves. In his seminar about developmental risk for anxiety and depression, Dr. Ned H. Kalin spoke of anxiety and its interaction with other psychiatric problems. According to studies, about 20% of all adults will at some point in their life experience an anxiety problem. Dr. Kalin specifically addressed a disorder called Anxious Temperament (AT). He described it as extreme behavioral inhibition to novel situations or strangers. It is said to predict the development of other anxiety disorders, depression, and even co-morbid drug abuse. The, so-to-speak, positive side of AT is that it can be identified early in life and treatment can be administered.

 20% is an incredibly high proportion of the adult population. If so many people will indeed develop an anxiety disorder, such as AT, how could it be interrelated with another, possibly pre-existing, psychological disorder a person is already afflicted with? Research conducted at the Annenberg School for Communication at the University of Pennsylvania has revealed a new possible relationship between anxiety and how it affects neurotic people and their decision-making process (or lack thereof). Neuroticism can be defined as “the experience of chronic negative affect”. It is hard to control as well as quite easily triggered. Many negative feelings, such as anxiety and depression, are an integral part of and deepen neuroticism in afflicted individuals. Anxiety in neurotics then not only deepens the problem and is related to its causes, but it is also a gateway for more anxiety disorders to come. Researchers at the University of Pennsylvania now think that neurotic people are prone to avoiding taking action of any kind when faced with a difficulty or major life change or decision, which can have potentially disastrous effects. People who are anxious and neurotic seem to view action as a negative step and inaction as a positive one. Their view is reversed as compared to people who are considered emotionally stable. This anxiety-influenced attitude can be extremely damaging and hold people back from achieving a state of happiness.

            Since anxiety is such a common issue and it statistically affects about 1in 5 people, it is important to be mindful of one’s attitudes and control one’s anxiety as much as possible because, if uncontrolled, it can spill over into all aspects of a person’s life and invite in many other anxiety-related disorders, such as neuroticism or depression.

Source: McNamee, David. "Anxiety Makes Neurotic People 'afraid of Action'" Medical News           Today. MediLexicon International, 27 Apr. 2014. Web. 29 Apr. 2014. <http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/276018.php>.

TIMEOUT!!

In grade school, when we misbehaved the teacher sent us to a corner for a timeout. Why? Was it because we were naughty and the teacher did not want us to influence the other children in the class? No. It was so we could calm down, focus, and reflect on our behavior that put us in a tiny corner. Since such a young age, people have been conditioned that time out is only needed when you misbehave. Perhaps, that is exactly what our society needs: a daily timeout. 

When last time we did nothing? Like completely nothing. NO texts. NO phones. NO talking. NO social media. NO reading. NO eating. NO planning about what you want eat. Just absolutely nothing. In this day and age this is almost an impossible task. We are constantly dwelling in the past or pondering about the future. We spend more time taking care of our cars, physical appearance, but we do not spend as much time developing and toning our mind.  Our mind is the most important resource we have. It gives us the ability to communicate, focus, be creative, do perform what want at optimal performance. It is imperative to sharpen our mind, despite what obstacles life can throw at us. Life can have us down in pain and there are many avenues we can take to try to relieve the negative feelings. Some form support groups, talk to friends, consume themselves in their job, workout at gyms, and many of us resolve to meds, drugs, and alcohol. Drugs and alcohol is an over-abused  and addictive way to solve our pains and only sends us spiraling downwards into deeper and darker places. We consider it a quick fix because we want anything that takes us out of the moment and create a distraction or an illusion of comfort that can be remarkably seductive. In his awesome presentation, Dr. Thomas Lyon presented his research that showed a positive correlation between mindfulness and meditation to treating drug and alcohol abuse. He pointed out some of the brain structures that are positively affected by meditation/mindfulness, such as the prefrontal cortex, hippocampus, amygdala, and functional networks. Strengthening connectivity between the cortex and limbic system dampens automatic amygdala activation which can be interoperated as an overall increase in conscious control. Dr. Lyon’s study showed eight week meditation training increases grey matter density in hippocampus, cerebellum compared to controls. Furthermore, cross sectional comparison of long term meditator vs non meditators show enhanced activity in the PFC, right anterior insula and right hippocampus. Lastly, mindful attention reduced neural activity in subgenual anterior cingulate cortex. Reduced connectivity with other craving related regions including insula and ventral striatum. Clearly, the study shows that mindfulness/meditation has a bright future for abusers of drugs and alcohols.  

Many people think that meditation is all about stopping thought, getting rid of emotions, somehow controlling the mind. But its actually much different. its about stepping back, seeing the thoughts and emotion clearly coming and going with a relaxed focused mind. The brain gets stressed and meditation is not medication, like Tylenol, to treat symptoms but rather a preventative tool that will give us overall well being. While meditation might not be for everyone, its effects can’t be denied for another possible option. Meditation has been practiced around the world for centuries and science is just now starting to delve into it. These findings presented by Dr. Lyon were further reinforced by a recent article, Mindfulness therapy helps prevent drug and alcohol relapse, published in the Chicago Tribune on March 20, 2014. Bowen and her colleagues reported that, “about 11 percent of people in the U.S. with substance abuse problems seek treatment every year, but between 40 percent and 60 percent relapse.” The study split 268 people who had finished substance abuse treatment into three groups and were followed for one year. The groups were as followed: a standard 12-step program, a cognitive behavioral based relapse prevention program and a program combining relapse prevention with meditation. The results were indicative. “About 9 percent of the participants in the mindfulness group reported drug use after a year, compared to about 14 percent in the 12-step program group and 17 percent in the traditional relapse-prevention group. Only about 8 percent of the participants in the mindfulness group also reported heavy drinking after a year, compared to about 20 percent in the other two therapy groups.” While this study back Dr. Lyon's project, Bowen did mention that some in the meditation group showed no improvement. 

Consequently, often times we miss the moment because we are thinking about the future. We should try to set aside time in the morning or a few minutes before we go to bed to take inhale… a deep breath and be more mindful.  We need to find a balance in life, and if we do, it will ultimately make our lives more enjoyable, productive, and meaningful. 

Seaman, Andrew. "Mindfulness Therapy Helps Prevent Drug and Alcohol Relapse." Chicago Tribune. N.p., 20 Mar. 2014. Web. 29 Apr. 2014.

"Mindfulness Inhibits Implicit Learning -- the Wellspring of Bad Habits."ScienceDaily. ScienceDaily, n.d. Web. 29 Apr. 2014.

Zahir Siddiqui

Cognitive Benefits of Language Immersion

Valerie Flores, a doctoral candidate at Loyola University Chicago, studies the cognitive ramifications of bilingualism, specifically in language brokers. A language broker is an individual, often a child, that uses his or her bilingual language skills to frequently translate materials for family and friends. The cognitive benefits of bilingualism have been widely studied and include superior performance on non-verbal spatial tasks and particular language tasks, protection against mental deterioration associated with aging, and strong ability to inhibit distractions. The stronger executive functions of bilingualism might stem from practice with attentional control--bilinguals must constantly switch between language and culture, inhibiting one while selecting the other. Ms. Flores knows that language brokers report higher test scores and academic self-efficacy, so she designed experiments to determine if brokerism provides a boost to executive functions beyond even that of bilingualism.

Ms. Flores reports that she found no advantages in brokers' working memory, but she did find evidence of increased inhibition. The team utilized the Color-Word Stroop Test, which consists of flashcards with names of colors in various shades of ink. The participant is instructed to report the color, which requires inhibition of the prepotent response to read the word. As was anticipated, brokers' scores on the test were high, indicating strong cognitive inhibition. The participants were then asked to identify the color of words that appeared in boxes, but read the words that weren't boxed. Brokers generally performed better on this shift-test, which might be explained by the cognitive flexibility that must accompany switching between languages.

In his article on language immersion programs, Dr. Grosjean reports that the cognitive benefits of bilingualism aren't restricted to early learners--later exposure to another language also improves executive functioning. Dr. Grosjean cites studies comparing syntactic awareness and verbal fluency, which found that immersion children have metalinguistic advantages over their monolingual counterparts. Studies have shown that while immersion does produce results similar to those of early bilingualism, immersion students do not show the same prowess at inhibition as language brokers do. Dr. Grosjean attributes this to the fact that immersion students do not gain much experience in their second language outside of the classroom. Still, immersion in a second language seems like a wise investment, especially because the "length of time spent in a program...determines the extent to which executive control is affected."

http://www.psychologytoday.com/em/137648

Depression: Developing a Biological Basis

As Dr. Silton mentioned during her lecture, depression is a widespread and well-known psychological disorder. It is the leading cause of disability and around 17% of adults experience one major depressive episode in their life. It relates to other health problems; for example, it leads to an earlier onset and a more severe case of cardiovascular disease. It predicts longer recovery from other health problems. Furthermore, 50-90% of people who commit suicide do so during a depressive episode or while they’re recovering from one. With all that being said, it is very clear that depression is a very prevalent disorder and it can have serious and sometimes irreversible effects.

However, despite its effects and it’s prevalence, diagnosing a patient with depression can be a challenge. The process of diagnosing a potential patient is a little murky in terms of what specifically qualifies a person to be considered depressed. Being depressed entails having a cluster of signs and symptoms, but there’s not very much biology behind such a diagnosis. This is partly due to the DSM-V manner of diagnosis– which is currently being replaced by a developing new system – the RDoC. Dr. Silton mentioned the shift to RDoC is aiming to focus more on discovering biological bases for psychological disorders. In other words, current diagnosis is based on more subjective measures, while the new system will be more based off objective measures. This new focus on discovering biological bases for psychological disorders opens a completely new door for researchers. There is a very conscious effort to try and discover more biological markers for these disorders.

Such efforts include the research on depression that’s being done at the Icahan School of Medicine at Mount Sinai. More specifically, they did research on a biological marker that can regulate the vulnerability to depression. They experimented with mice to see the effect of a pro-inflammatory immune chemical called interleukin-6. They found that mice with elevated levels of this chemical showed depression-like behaviors. This suggested that differences in the peripheral immune system could contribute to the vulnerability of developing depression.

In order to more directly analyze the role for immune responses in depression-like behaviors, “the investigators used irradiation to lesion the immune system of mice.” They transferred bone marrow to replace the immune system with one from mice that showed either low or high levels of interleukin-6. They found that mice that had received transplants from high-responding donors had a lot more depression-like behaviors when compared to those who got their transplants from low-responding donors.

This finding shows us that “circulating immune chemicals that can act in the brain may influence vulnerability to depression.” This could add a biological component in diagnosing depression because if a patient has high levels of this chemical, it means they are more susceptible to depression. This is exactly the kind of basis that could be added to the RDoC. Even though this is only shows a higher susceptibility to depression, it is still a biological basis that can direct doctors in the right path. Hopefully more research like this can be done to discover more specific biological markers that indicate depression, markers that provide much more solid evidence than the current more subjective cluster of symptoms and signs. 

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2013/12/131212100045.htm

Meditation: The Art of Healing

What if a better way to fight certain diseases is not in a form of drug that your doctor prescribes? What if that "miracle drug" you've been searching for is sitting right in the comfort of your own mind? And maybe, just maybe, if you focus a little closer and find your inner peace, you will also find something that can be more powerful than a medication. This could be achieved through mindfulness meditation. 

Several health benefits have been found from various research focusing on mindfulness meditation. Dan Hurley, a science journalist, wrote in his article Breathing In vs. Spacing out key findings from different researchers in the fields of neuroscience and psychology that unravel the mystery of meditation. He mentioned the work of Amishi Jha, a psychologist, who worked on the effect of 12 minute meditation a day for US Marines in Hawaii. The results suggest that meditation helps marines to keep their attention and working memory stable. Moreover, if they meditated for less than 12 minutes or none at all, there was a significant decrease in their functioning. This key finding suggests the importance of meditation in stressful situations such as in the case of the US Marines on training. Furthermore, researchers A. Chiesa and A. Serretti wrote in their review article, A systemic review of neurobiological and clinical features of mindfulness meditations, a compilation of research findings related to mindfulness meditation. In a neuroimaging study, they stated a key finding that "long term meditation practice is associated with an enhancement of cerebral areas related to attention." Hence, we can see the correlation to the study done by Jha with the US Marines. 

So if we could improve attention by meditation, can we also enhance our ability to perform better in academic tests? The answer is a resounding yes and this is supported by a research finding from Hurley's article. He stated that researches have found that meditation improves working memory capacity of undergraduates who took the Graduate Record Exam. 

Mindfulness meditation is indeed a new way to promote a healthier state of mind. To improve our brain function and ability to solve daily problems. However, it is not only limited to attention and improving test scores. There have been numerous clinical findings that could make mindfulness meditation a sort of the "new miracle drug." Key findings from the review article of Chiesa and Serretti that state the health benefits of meditation are: (1) reduction in relapses of depression, (2) reduction of blood pressure, (3) decrease in alcohol and substance abuse in prisoners, (4) reduction of stress levels and (5) reduction of psychological distress in patients with cancer and chronic pain. These are only a few of the undiscovered advantages of meditation. Just imagine how many more diseases we can fight through finding that inner peace. Scientists are now rediscovering the power of meditation and how it can be a life changer for many of us. It may only take a few minutes a day to improve our brain function and also fight off potential health risks that could possibly harm us.

Not every health problem is solved through some sort of medication. Sometimes, all we just need is a simple meditation. 

References:

1. Chiesa A, Serretti A. "A systemic review of neurobiological and clinical features of mindfulness meditations." Psychological Medicine, 2010; 40(8): 1239-1252

2. Hurley, Dan. "Breathing In vs. Spacing Out." The New York Times. The New York Times, 18 Jan. 2014. Web. 29 Apr. 2014

Human Impact on the Behavior of Social Animals

Hannia Farooqi

At the neuroscience seminar on April 8^th given by Dr. Darren Schreiber, the social behavioral aspect of neuroscience in animals was discussed. Many animals are called “social animals” because they display social behaviors. A few examples of social animals include fish, ants, and locusts. This social behavior can be demonstrated through the use of pheromones which are chemicals that are secreted or excreted by an animal and trigger a social response in members of the same species. Another example of social behavior is shown when ants battle which actively demonstrates the social psychology concept of “us versus them”. In comparison to social animals, political animals demand more complex brains and they typically form and later un-form groups. A few examples of political animals include hyenas, dolphins, crows, and elephants. An interesting phenomenon shown in hyenas is female domination of their groups. I’m going to explore the idea of social and political animals further with the example of the elephant.

                In the National Geographic article “Orphan Elephants Lack Social Knowledge Key for Survival”, African elephants are described as highly intelligent social animals which depend on their sophisticated communication skills for survival. Elephants develop highly complex social relationships over their long life spans. A study was done by behavioral ecologists from the University of Sussex to examine two different elephant populations, one was an undisturbed group living in Amboseli National Park in Kenya and another group was a translocated population in Pilanesberg Park in South Africa. These Pilanesberg Park elephants were moved to this location as calves after the culling of adults in Kruger National Park. Culling is the selective slaughter of a wild animal population in order to reduce the population size.

These translocated elephants displayed signs of negative long-term psychological impact which affected their decision-making. Their symptoms were very similar to those of humans with post-traumatic stress disorder. The Pilanesberg population of elephants had difficulty with long-term learning and knowledge transfer due to the culling. Human activities of culling and relocation have a negative impact on the communication skills, cognition, and social understanding of these wild elephants.

During the study, the experimenters tested how elephants react to non-threatening social calls and threatening social calls. The results showed that the Amboseli elephants made better decisions in recognizing threatening calls, demonstrated by stronger listening, sniffing, and bunching behavior to protect the young, which showed a focus on attention on the most socially dominant individuals. On the other hand, the Pilanesberg elephants were not able to discriminate like the other group of elephants; the Pilanesberg elephants’ response did not change based on the social familiarity of the caller. This study demonstrated that culling and translocation cause initial trauma and then later cause a lack of leadership and group role models. The initial trauma is due to the young calves having to watch the butchering of their mothers and family members. Unfortunately, the people leading the culls didn’t realize that elephants are highly intelligent and social animals. Therefore, they didn’t predict the long-term implications the young calves would eventually face. Additionally, these elephants grew up without any role models so they responded very differently to threats and suffer from a profound loss of social knowledge which causes a decreased ability to make informed decisions. For highly cognitive and social species, such as elephants, social trauma that occurs at a young age can negatively impact development, causing persistent fear, infant abandonment, and hyper-aggression.

                Today, war, poaching, translocation, capture, and human disturbance to the landscape greatly impacts elephant populations. Furthermore, poaching is significantly damaging the structure of elephant societies and the social consequences of this will be seen in the future.

Barcus, Christie. “Orphan Elephants Lack Social Knowledge Key for Survival.” National Geographic. n.p., 31 Oct. 2013. Web. 21 April 2009.