Neurobiology of Language and Bilingualism

Language is handled by a distributed network of brain regions that must rapidly coordinate meaning, grammar, sound, and social context within fractions of a second — a feat that functional neuroimaging and lesion studies have only begun to map in detail. Researchers working on the neurobiology of language examine how the brain encodes and retrieves semantic memory, parses syntactic structure, and coordinates cognitive control when switching between two languages in a bilingual speaker. Aphasia — language impairment following stroke or brain injury — has long served as a natural experiment revealing which neural circuits are indispensable, while contemporary neuroimaging now allows scientists to observe healthy language processing in real time. Central open questions include how the bilingual brain manages two lexical systems without constant interference, and how experience and learning continuously reshape the cortical organization of language throughout life.

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Keywords

Language ProcessingSemantic MemoryBilingualismNeural BasisCognitive ControlSpeech Comprehension