Bilinguals at the "cocktail party": dissociable neural activity in auditory-linguistic brain regions reveals neurobiological basis for nonnative listeners' speech-in-noise recognition deficits.

We examined a consistent deficit observed in bilinguals: poorer speech-in-noise (SIN) comprehension for their nonnative language. We recorded neuroelectric mismatch potentials in mono- and bi-lingual listeners in response to contrastive speech sounds in noise. Behaviorally, late bilinguals required ∼10dB more favorable signal-to-noise ratios to match monolinguals' SIN abilities.