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fMRI Research on the Bilingual Brain

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  22 December 2014

Laura Sabourin
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Abstract

In this article, I review the use of the functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) technique to investigate the bilingual brain. Specifically, this review will discuss the types of research questions that can be (and have been) answered using this specific methodology, as well as questions this technique cannot answer. The review will then focus on providing a recent overview of fMRI studies of the bilingual mental lexicon, bilingual sentence processing, and the bilingual advantage in cognitive control. The pros and cons of this technique will be discussed in detail. This review will end with a discussion of the state of the art in the field of bilingual brain research and will provide avenues for future research directions to continue investigating the bilingual brain.

Type
Research Article
Information
Annual Review of Applied Linguistics , Volume 34 , March 2014 , pp. 1 - 14
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2014 

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References

ANNOTATED BIBLIOGRAPHY

Friederici, A. (2011). The brain basis of language processing: From structure to function. Physiological Review, 91, 1357–1392.

This article is a thorough review and introduction to the neurological structures that are involved in all of the levels of language processing in both typical and atypical (i.e., impaired) participants. This article complements the present review in that it provides a much more detailed overview of the neuroanatomical regions involved in general language processing. This article will allow the reader to comparxe bilingual processing to what happens in the (monolingual) processing of a native language.

Green, D. W., & Wei, L. (2014). A control process model of code-switching. Language, Cognition and Neuroscience, 29 (4), 499–511.

In this article the authors discuss how different bilingual language environments may affect the neural organization of language processing in bilinguals. Three different types of code-switching (which result from different types of bilingual environments) are discussed: alternations, insertions, and dense code-switching. In order to fully comprehend the specifics of bilingualism in the brain, a thorough description of participant groups (and their bilingual environments) in each study must be provided. It is likely the case that differences in results are due to not only proficiency and age of acquisition effects, but that strong effects of the bilingual environment are also present.

Kovelman, I., Baker, S. A., & Petitto, L-A. (2008). Bilingual and monolingual brains compared: A functional magnetic resonance imaging investigation of syntactic processing and a possible “neural signature” of bilingualism. Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience, 20 (1), 153–169.

This article is of particular interest in that it not only compares monolingual to bilingual language processing, but also compares the brain regions involved during the processing of each of a bilingual's two languages. Specifically, this article shows that for highly proficient early bilinguals that each language has its own neural signature. This suggests that it is not just that language is processed in one way within the brain, but that different patterns are found for each language even in cases of “true” bilingualism.

Waldron, E. J., & Hernandez, A. E. (2013). The role of age of acquisition on past tense generation in Spanish-English bilinguals: An fMRI study. Brain and Language, 125 (1), 28–37.

This article provides insight into the precise role of how age of acquisition affects neural organization for linguistic processing. The authors find, contrary to Kovelman et al. (2008) that early learned languages show similar neural patterns of processing. Conversely, they further show that later learned languages result in neural processing patterns that include regions dedicate to executive functioning.

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