The Neurology of Bilingualism

Abstract

Analyzed are several cases of bilingualism; evidence is adduced supporting the hypothesis that different langs, or languages acquired differently, may be partly subserved by different cerebral circuits. It is shown that the ability of some polyglots to use their languages without reciprocal interference cannot yet be localized with certainty. Cases of aphasia, where a second language is less impaired or is better recovered than the first, suggest that the mother tongue is not necessarily more deeply rooted in the central nervous system than any well-known foreign lang. Thus, neurological data do not support the myth of the mother tongue's pervasion of the mind. Modified HA