Chapter 4. Bilingualism and language control

Abstract

The field of neuropsychology can contribute to bilingualism research from a multidisciplinary perspective that ranges from psycholinguistics and brain imaging studies. While the psycholinguistic approach provides the outlook on linguistic processes in experimental study of patients with brain damage, neural models define the underlying brain areas of such processes and help to predict language deficits in said patients. Current neural models of bilingualism do not provide accurate predictions of deficits in bilinguals with brain damage since they have not been tested in a systematic way. However, they do offer a roadmap for the underlying cognitive and linguistic processes of bilingual language control and speech production. In this chapter, I propose how a neurolinguistic approach to bilingualism might be implemented in neuropsychology by including: (a) the application of traditional methods of cognitive (neuro)psychology to the field of bilingualism, such as dissociations, (b) the use of psycholinguistic methods, and (c) how neurodegenerative diseases may be a neuropsychological paradigm in which one can study bilingual language processes.