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Open Imaging Index
MRI Brain

Monolinguals and Early and Late Bilinguals (ds001747)

Exploring the Resting State Neural Activity of Monolinguals and Late and Early Bilinguals

Brain MRI of young healthy adults at Brigham Young University in three language groups (monolinguals, early and late bilinguals), with one T1w scan and one 12-minute multiband resting-state fMRI run per participant.

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Overview

This OpenNeuro dataset holds brain MRI of 92 young adults scanned at the Brigham Young University MRI Research Facility to compare resting-state activity of the default mode network between people who speak one language and people who acquired a second language either in childhood or later in life. It was shared by Carrie E. Gold, Athena L. Howell, Jacob Burdis, C. Brock Kirwan and Gregory L. Thompson. The first snapshot appeared in February 2019; snapshot 1.1.0 from July 2023 added age of acquisition to the participants table. The data are released under CC0.

Composition

Each participant contributed one T1-weighted structural image and one resting-state BOLD run. The participants table assigns 33 people to a monolingual control group, 27 to an early-acquisition bilingual group and 32 to a late-acquisition bilingual group. It lists 51 women and 41 men aged 18 to 29 years (median 21), and also gives self-reported ethnicity, years of education, English and Spanish proficiency scores, the number of languages spoken and, for bilinguals, the age at which the second language was acquired. The README describes the sample as young healthy adults.

Acquisition

All scans were made on a 3 T Siemens TIM Trio with a 32-channel head coil. The structural image is an MP-RAGE with 1 mm slices, TR 1900 ms and GRAPPA factor 2. The resting-state run is a T2*-weighted multiband EPI with multiband factor 8, TR 875 ms, 1.8 mm isotropic voxels and 823 volumes, about 12 minutes, angled parallel to the long axis of the hippocampus. The images were converted from DICOM with dcm2nii; structural images were reoriented and cropped during conversion.

Known limitations

  • There is no data descriptor or study paper linked from the dataset; the README is the only description.
  • The README does not state the inclusion criteria or how the bilingual groups were defined beyond the group labels.
  • Proficiency scores and the number of languages are missing for several participants.
  • Each participant has a single session; there are no field maps.

Cohort

Aggregate numbers from the sources below. Bars are relative to the 92 subjects.

Sex

  • Female 51 55%
  • Male 41 45%

From participants.tsv of ds001747 snapshot 1.1.0 (CC0), counted per row

Contrast / sequence

Groups can overlap

  • T1-weighted 92 100%
  • BOLD fMRI 92 100%

From File tree and JSON sidecars of ds001747 snapshot 1.1.0 (CC0), NIfTI files counted per subject folder

Scanner vendor

  • Siemens Healthineers 92 100%

sub-*_T1w.json Manufacturer in File tree and JSON sidecars of ds001747 snapshot 1.1.0 (CC0), NIfTI files counted per subject folder

Country

  • United States 92 100%

sub-*_T1w.json InstitutionAddress in File tree and JSON sidecars of ds001747 snapshot 1.1.0 (CC0), NIfTI files counted per subject folder

Age

mean 21.7 ± 2.5, median 21, range 18 to 29

0
20
40
60
76
10-1920-29

From participants.tsv of ds001747 snapshot 1.1.0 (CC0), counted per row

Condition

Groups can overlap

  • Healthy control 92 100%

README abstract in OpenNeuro ds001747 snapshot 1.1.0 (README, dataset_description.json, CHANGES and snapshot summary)

Field strength

  • 3 T 92 100%

sub-*_T1w.json MagneticFieldStrength in File tree and JSON sidecars of ds001747 snapshot 1.1.0 (CC0), NIfTI files counted per subject folder

Contrast combinations

How many subjects have exactly each set of contrasts.

T1wboldSubjects with exactly this set
92

From File tree and JSON sidecars of ds001747 snapshot 1.1.0 (CC0), NIfTI files counted per subject folder

License and access

Our reading of the license, not legal advice. Before you use the data, read the original license and confirm that your use is allowed. We take no responsibility for how you use a dataset. Full disclaimer

Access
Open download

Download without an account

Access page

Creative Commons Zero 1.0 Universal

Public domain dedication. Do anything with the data, including commercial use, without asking and without having to give credit.

dataset_description.json of snapshot 1.1.0 states "License" CC0.

Original license text Version read: 1.0 Checked 2026-10-07

What you can do

  • Yes
  • Yes
  • Yes
  • Yes
  • Yes

What you can share

  • Yes
  • Yes
  • Yes

What you must do

  • No
  • Share alike No
  • No
  • No
  • Manuscript review No
  • Release code No
  • Return results No
  • Delete after use No

Limits

  • No
  • Location limits No

Citation

Gold CE, Howell AL, Burdis J, Kirwan CB, Thompson GL. Exploring the Resting State Neural Activity of Monolinguals and Late and Early Bilinguals. OpenNeuro, version 1.1.0 (2023). doi:10.18112/openneuro.ds001747.v1.1.0

Sources

Every number on this page comes from one of these documents. Each chart names the table or page it is taken from. The raw numbers are in stats.csv.