Brain Behavior

As Mónica Rosselli, Ph.D., was growing up in Colombia, it was common for her family's dinner conversations to include brain science topics. Rosselli's mother is a psychologist, and her father is a behavioral and cognitive neurologist.

Rosselli's interest in neuropsychology led to her work as a clinical neuropsychologist in Bogotá, Colombia, and later as a researcher at the University of Miami. She is now a professor and associate chair in the department of psychology in the Charles E. Schmidt College of Science.

Her current research focuses on the ability to communicate in two or more languages, which can lead to differences in the brain, as well as cognition, especially as humans age. The active use of two languages has been shown to modify the individual’s cognitive processes, particularly executive functions. Results about the effects of bilingualism have been contradictory. Some studies have reported cognitive benefits of bilingualism, such as advantages in conflict resolution, suppressing irrelevant information, shifting between mental sets, improving control of linguistic processes, and slowing the decline of executive functions in aging. However, other studies have not been able to replicate these findings. To contribute to this line of inquiry, Rosselli investigates cultural or learned experiences of language and studies differences between the brains of bilinguals and monolinguals in healthy and abnormal aging (e.g., mild cognitive impairment and dementia).

Her research, which looks at the influence of culture, bilingualism and education on cognitive processes, combines behavioral and cognitive testing with direct measures of brain activity and brain volume. A significant component of her research is dedicated to the study of Hispanic populations. She has been an investigator for the 1Florida Alzheimer's Disease Research Center for more than five years. Her work ranges from typical cognitive processing to the impact of age-related cognitive disorders such as Alzheimer's disease.

"In one of our current projects, we analyze the influence of speaking two languages and how the active use of two languages may change the way we age," Rosselli said. "The brain of a monolingual person may look different from the brain of a bilingual person … and we found that bilingualism may be associated with modifications in the size of brain structures and in how different areas of the brain are connected."