The age of second language acquisition determines the variability in activation elicited by narration in three languages in Broca's and Wernicke's area.

It is generally accepted that the presence of a second language (L2) has an impact on the neuronal substrates build up and used for language processing; the influence of the age of L2 exposure, however, is not established. We tested the hypothesis that the age of L2 acquisition has an effect on the cortical representation of a multilingual repertoire in 44 multilinguals with different age of exposure to a L2 (simultaneous or covert simultaneous exposure to L1 and L2, sequential acquisition of L1 and L2 between 1 and 5 years, late learning of L2 after 9 years of age) and all fluent in a late learned L3. Regional activation in a language production task showed a high in-between-subject variability, which was higher than within-subject variability between L1, L2, and L3.

On females' lateral and males' bilateral activation during language production: a fMRI study.

This study focuses on sex/gender and language in fMRI research. We explore the question of similarities and differences in 22 men and 22 women, respectively, in a fMRI language production task of fluent narration in which covert language production was contrasted with an auditory attentional task. In women, a left-lateralised activation concentrated in BA 44 while in men activation was more frontal in BA 45 and more often bilateral.