Control mechanisms in bilingual language production: Neural evidence from language switching studies

Abstract

A key question in bilingual language production research is how bilingual individuals control the use of their two languages. The psycholinguistic literature concerning language control is unresolved. It is a matter of controversy whether (a) issues to do with control are central to understanding bilingual language processing; and (b) if they are, what is the site or sites of control; and (c) whether language control in bilinguals relies upon inhibitory mechanisms. One way to deepen our understanding of language control is to consider the implications from research on functional neuroimaging. In the present paper, we illustrate that neuroimaging research shows that bilinguals engage cognitive control networks for achieving tasks such as language switching. The neural evidence points to multiple neural regions of control that may rely upon an inhibitory mechanism. These ‘brain data’ may, in turn, stimulate the development of neurocognitive accounts of bilingual language processing.