A central question for multilinguals is how their languages interact in the brain. Our lab investigates, at the neural level, which components of the language system are specific to each language and which are shared across languages. One possibility is that once a neural mechanism is in place for a process—such as plural inflection—the same neural population supports it regardless of the input language, reflecting a unified architecture that is stable across an individual’s language experience.Alternatively, each language might develop its own distinct neural mechanisms, shaped by factors such as its formal structure, the age at which it was learned, and the speaker’s proficiency. We explore these possibilities at the lexical, morphological, and syntactic levels to uncover principles of the language system that apply across languages and levels of representation.
NYU DEPARTMENT OF PSYCHOLOGY
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