Immersive bilingualism reshapes the core of the brain

Bilingualism has been shown to affect the structure of the brain, including cortical regions related to language. Less is known about subcortical structures, such as the basal ganglia, which underlie speech monitoring and language selection, processes that are crucial for bilinguals, as well as other linguistic functions, such as grammatical and phonological acquisition and processing. Simultaneous bilinguals have demonstrated significant reshaping of the basal ganglia and the thalamus compared to monolinguals. However, it is not clear whether these effects are due to learning of the second language (L2) at a very young age or simply due to continuous usage of two languages. Here, we show that bilingualism-induced subcortical effects are directly related to the amount of continuous L2 usage, or L2 immersion. We found significant subcortical reshaping in non-simultaneous (or sequential) bilinguals with extensive immersion in a bilingual environment, closely mirroring the recent findings in simultaneous bilinguals. Importantly, some of these effects were positively correlated to the amount of L2 immersion. Conversely, sequential bilinguals with comparable proficiency and age of acquisition (AoA) but limited immersion did not show similar effects. Our results provide structural evidence to suggestions that L2 acquisition continuously occurs in an immersive environment, and is expressed as dynamic reshaping of the core of the brain. These findings propose that second language learning in the brain is a dynamic procedure which depends on active and continuous L2 usage

Erratum to: 36th International Symposium on Intensive Care and Emergency Medicine

[This corrects the article DOI: 10.1186/s13054-016-1208-6.]

Peculiar behavior of the ester carbonyl vibrational modes in anisotropic aliphatic and semi-aromatic polyesters

The current work reports on a systematic study related to the vibrational modes of the ester carbonyl group in drawn polyesters. We have observed and try to explain how the presence of aromatic units in the molecular structure substantially affects the respective elements of the Raman tensor in contrast to the dipole moment derivative vector which is only marginally influenced. The work is based on the collection of polarized Raman spectra and FTIR dichroism measurements on the one hand and on DFT calculations on the other. The experimental data were obtained from uniaxially stretched aliphatic and semi-aromatic polyesters. The calculations were applied on relevant oriented oligomers and allowed the extraction: (i) of reliable Raman/FTIR vibrational spectra and (ii) the components of the dipole moment derivative and Raman tensor of the vibrational modes and in particular the ones involving the ester carbonyl group. Experimental data indicate that the intensity of the ester carbonyl band is considerably enhanced in the Raman spectra of semi-aromatic polyesters, which results from a considerable enhancement of the related coupling coefficient. Furthermore, the angles of the principle Raman tensor axis are rotated so that the element of the tensor with the greatest value is oriented towards the direction designated by the segment. The latter explains the peculiar experimentally indicated anisotropy, through the ester carbonyl stretching, for the case of semi-aromatic polyesters, which is totally different with that observed in the aliphatic ones. © 2021 Elsevier B.V

Mental Health in Head and Neck Cancer

Acknowledging the health behaviors that lead to HNC, as well as the highly impactful location and functional changes from the cancer and treatment, has led to increasing interest in MH in HNC. The distressing aspects of HNC affect patients, their caregivers, and their physicians alike. MH must be a priority from diagnosis through to the end of these patients’ lives. Here we have summarized the known elements of MH in HNC. We have determined that health behaviors, such as tobacco use, alcohol use, and high-risk sexual behaviors that lead to heighten HPV infection risk, play a long-lasting and complex role with distress levels in HNC. Psychiatric illness is one aspect of psychosocial distress that can more easily be studied due to existing clinical frameworks from which to begin investigation, though other elements of distress are more difficult to identify and quantify. We have highlighted advances in stress management for improving MH in these patients, most notably cognitive behavioral therapy-based interventions. This summary has led to the conclusion that the best is yet to come, with the open opportunities to define the mental health challenges in the landscape of HNC, to generate effective and validated treatments, and to pair treatments with patients and their caregivers