It seems researchers are a little closer to knowing how the bilingual brain works. A new paper in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences highlights how our minds shift from speaking in one language to another.
Past work had already narrowed in on a couple of brain regions related to cognitive control — the prefrontal cortex at the front of the brain and the anterior cingulate cortex more toward the back — as being involved in the switch. But these two separate acts, turning off one language and flipping on another, happen simultaneously. To truly isolate where the switch happens, researchers would have to study someone speaking in two languages at once, and then have them shift into just one. And since most people can’t do that, it’s been tricky for researchers to suss out what’s happening where.
A team of experts from New York University and San ...
