Studies on bilingualism from a neurocognitive perspective have begun to attract considerable interest recently. Contextual variables — such as age of acquisition, level of proficiency and frequency of use — have been identified as significantly impacting on the convergence or divergence of representations in first language (L1) and second (L2) language acquisition. The neurocognitive effect of bilingualism in paediatric populations, nevertheless, has not been widely investigated. Results from recent bilingual neuroimaging studies of word processing are discussed and compared to results obtained from a functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) study of bilingual primary school children executing a productive lexicosemantic task. Previous studies indicate `level of proficiency' as a determinant of convergence of L1/L2 patterns during lexicosemantic tasks. Our results suggest that level of proficiency may be an inadequate predictor of convergence at least in paediatric populations, and demonstrate early influence of sequential bilingualism on the mother tongue as well.
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