Anton, E. | Search bioRxiv

bioRxiv2018

The impact of bilingualism on executive functions and working memory in young adults.

A bilingual advantage in a form of a better performance of bilinguals in tasks tapping into executive function abilities has been reported repeatedly in the literature. However, recent research defends that this advantage does not stem from bilingualism, but from uncontrolled factors or imperfectly matched samples. In this study we explored the potential impact of bilingualism on executive functioning abilities by testing large groups of young adult bilinguals and monolinguals in the tasks that were most extensively used when the advantages were reported. Importantly, the recently identified factors that could be disrupting the between groups comparisons were controlled for, and both groups were matched. We found no differences between groups in their performance. Additional bootstrapping analyses indicated that, when the bilingual advantage appeared, it very often co-occurred with unmatched socio-demographic factors. The evidence presented here indicates that the bilingual advantage might indeed be caused by spurious uncontrolled factors rather than bilingualism per se. Secondly, bilingualism has been argued to potentially affect working memory also. Therefore, we tested the same participants in both a forward and a backward version of a visual and an auditory working memory task. We found no differences between groups in either of the forward versions of the tasks, but bilinguals systematically outperformed monolinguals in the backward conditions. The results are analyzed and interpreted taking into consideration different perspectives in the domain-specificity of the executive functions and working memory.

neuroscience↗

bioRxiv2017

The Protective Association Of Endogenous Immunoglobulins Against Sepsis Mortality Is Restricted To Patients With Moderate Organ Failure.

Backgroundpre-evaluation of endogenous immunoglobulin levels is a potential strategy to improve the results of intravenous immunoglobulins in sepsis, but more work has to be done to identify those patients who could benefit the most from this treatment. The objective of this study was to evaluate the impact of endogenous immunoglobulins on the mortality risk in sepsis depending on disease severity.\n\nMethodsthis was a retrospective observational study including 278 patients admitted to the ICU with sepsis fulfilling the SEPSIS-3 criteria, coming from the Spanish GRECIA and ABISS-EDUSEPSIS cohorts. Patients were distributed into two groups depending on their Sequential Organ Failure Assessment score al ICU admission (SOFA < 8, n = 122 and SOFA [≥] 8, n = 156) and the association between immunoglobulin levels at ICU admission with mortality was studied in each group by Kaplan Meier and multivariate logistic regression analysis.\n\nResultsICU / hospital mortality in the SOFA < 8 group was 14.8% / 23.0%, compared to 30.1 % / 35.3% in the SOFA [≥] 8 group. In the group with SOFA < 8, the simultaneous presence of total IgG <407 mg/dl, IgM < 43 mg/dl and IgA < 219 mg/dl was associated to a reduction in the survival mean time of 6.6 days in the first 28 days, and was a robust predictor of mortality risk either during the acute and the post-acute phase of the disease (OR for ICU mortality: 13.79; OR for hospital mortality: 7.98). This predictive ability remained in the absence of prior immunosupression (OR for ICU mortality: 17.53; OR for hospital mortality: 5.63). Total IgG <407 mg/dl or IgG1 < 332 mg/dl was also an independent predictor of ICU mortality in this group. In contrast, in the SOFA [≥] 8 group, we found no immunoglobulin thresholds associated to neither ICU nor to hospital mortality.\n\nConclusionsendogenous immunoglobulin levels may have a different impact on the mortality risk of sepsis patients based on their severity. In patients with moderate organ failure, the simultaneous presence of low levels of IgG, IgA and IgM was a consistent predictor of both acute and post-acute mortality.

immunology↗