Bilingual Executive Control in Avoiding Language
Mixing Despite Brain Damage

This lecture was co-sponsored by Center for India Studies & Department of Linguistics
Date: Friday, November 13th, 2015, 2:00-3:00 PM
Location: Poetry Center, Humanities 2001

Watch: Bilingual Executive Control

Lecture Abstract

There is now substantial literature on Executive Control advantages in older bilingual adults (as compared to
older monolinguals) that seem to derive from the bilingual's life-long practice of keeping two languages separate
or intermixed as appropriate. If the brain regions implicated in aphasia (difficulties in language use linked to
damage to core language regions in the brain) do not impair Executive Control, then we would expect bilinguals
with aphasia to retain their ability to determine which language to employ with individual interlocutors. Yet
there have been reports of excessive mixing in bilinguals with aphasia. Our data from Kannada-English
speakers with aphasia (Paplikar et al., in preparation) argue that despite increased language mixing, bilinguals
with aphasia employ the same patterns of mixing and avoiding mixing as bilinguals without aphasia.

About the Speaker: Loraine K. Obler

Loraine K. Obler is a Distinguished Professor in the Programs for Speech-Language-Hearing Sciences and Linguistics at the CUNY Graduate Center. Her research includes articles and chapters on her interests in neurolinguistics: bilingualism and the brain, talented and challenging L2 acquisition, cross-language study of aphasia, and the language-processing changes associated with healthy aging and the dementias. Her books include The Bilingual Brain: Neuropsychological and Neurolinguistic Aspects of Bilingualism (with Martin Albert), Language and the Brain (with Kris Gjerlow) and Bilingualism Across the Lifespan (edited with Kenneth Hyltenstam).