This Research Topic aims to bring together recent advances in research on the cognitive and neurobiological mechanisms underlying the acquisition, processing, and maintenance of a new language (including different pairs of languages and language varieties) at different stages in life (e.g., childhood, adolescence, and/or adulthood). It delves into how the human mind adapts and changes as individuals process, develop, and maintain (or lose) a new language and navigate between two or more languages and language varieties.

The proposed collection of papers will shed light on the development and use of language systems that exhibit different levels of similarities and differences, as well as on the benefits and challenges of acquiring and using more than one language or language varieties, in different contexts. It explores how the mind processes and represents multiple language systems, how they are stored and accessed, and how language experience impacts cognitive abilities, and vice-versa.

We are particularly interested in research that employs cognitive behavioral and/or neuroimaging methodologies to investigate the mechanisms underlying bilingual, multilingual, and multi-dialectal processing. We welcome research on the various linguistic aspects (phonology, morphology, syntax, semantics and pragmatics) in spoken and/or sign languages, in neurotypical and/or neurodiverse populations. We welcome submissions that address these issues from educational or clinical perspectives. This special issue welcomes articles on sequential bi/multilingualism including (but not limited to) the following issues:

• The impact of typological similarities and differences on the acquisition, representation, processing, and maintenance of one or more aspects of the linguistic system (e.g., phonology, morphology, syntax, semantics, pragmatics);

• The nature of the relation between receptive (e.g. speech perception, language comprehension) and expressive skills in bi/multilinguals;

• The nature of the relation between sequential bi/multilingualism and other cognitive processes and abilities (e.g., executive functions, working memory, musicianship).

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Frontiers in Human Neuroscience

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