Neuroimaging of language control in bilinguals: neural adaptation and reserve

TLDR

Bilingual language use requires a control system that manages interference from the non‑target language, a topic that neuroimaging research has long investigated as central to the neurocognitive language control model. The authors aim to examine the language control network within the adaptive control hypothesis and propose that adaptation generates neural reserve. They analyze functional and structural data to show how the network adapts to interactional context demands, supporting the hypothesis of adaptive changes and neural reserve. Their review updates the language control network and presents new functional and structural evidence that confirms its core components.

Abstract

Speaking more than one language demands a language control system that allows bilinguals to correctly use the intended language adjusting for possible interference from the non-target language. Understanding how the brain orchestrates the control of language has been a major focus of neuroimaging research on bilingualism and was central to our original neurocognitive language control model (Abutalebi & Green, 2007). We updated the network of language control (Green & Abutalebi, 2013) and here review the many new exciting findings based on functional and structural data that substantiate its core components. We discuss the language control network within the framework of the adaptive control hypothesis (Green & Abutalebi, 2013) that predicts adaptive changes specific to the control demands of the interactional contexts of language use. Adapting to such demands leads, we propose, to a neural reserve in the human brain.