Article published In: Language, Plasticity and Learning: Developmental Issues: Langage, Plasticité et Apprentissage : enjeux développementaux
Edited by Michèle Kail and Frédéric Isel
[Language, Interaction and Acquisition 12:1] 2021
► pp. 110–132
Language attrition: A matter of brain plasticity?
Some preliminary thoughts
Published online: 27 July 2021
https://doi.org/10.1075/lia.20015.kop
https://doi.org/10.1075/lia.20015.kop
Abstract
While it has long been assumed that brain plasticity declines significantly with growing maturity, recent studies
in adult subjects show grey and white matter changes due to language learning that suggest high adaptability of brain structures
even within short time-scales. It is not known yet whether other language development phenomena, such as attrition, may also be
linked to structural changes in the brain. In behavioral and neurocognitive research on language attrition and crosslinguistic
influence, findings suggest high plasticity as language interaction patterns of bilingual speakers change constantly and from
early stages of language acquisition onwards. In this paper we will speculate on possible links between brain plasticity and L1
attrition in adult bilinguals, with particular attention to a number of factors that are put forward in memory frameworks in order
to explain forgetting: time elapsed, frequency of L1 use, and interference from L2. In order to better understand the time-scales
involved in the plastic changes during bilingual development, we then discuss some recent studies of re-exposure to L1 in formerly
attrited immigrants, and their implications with respect to brain plasticity.
Résumé
Longtemps on a pensé que la plasticité cérébrale décline avec la maturité grandissante, alors que des études
récentes montrent des modifications de la matière grise et de la matière blanche au cours de l’apprentissage d’une langue
suggérant que le cerveau adulte conserve une grande adaptabilité même sur des périodes courtes. On ne sait pas encore si d’autres
phénomènes développementaux du langage, comme l’attrition, peuvent également entraîner des changements structuraux au niveau
cérébral. Des études comportementales et neurocognitives sur l’attrition et l’influence translinguistique montrent que les langues
d’un bilingue interagissent dès les premiers stades de l’acquisition d’une L2, ce qui suggère une forte plasticité cérébrale. Dans
cet article nous proposons une réflexion sur les liens possibles entre plasticité cérébrale et attrition d’une L1 chez l’adulte
avec focus sur des facteurs à la base d’hypothèses développées pour expliquer l’oubli : le temps qui passe, la fréquence
d’utilisation de la L1, l’interférence de la L2. Afin de mieux comprendre la temporalité des changements dans le développement
bilingue, nous discuterons quelques études de la ré-exposition à la L1 d’immigrants sujets à l’attrition de cette langue et de
leurs implications par rapport à la plasticité cérébrale.
Article outline
- 1.Introduction
- 2.Brain plasticity and language
- 3.Time in L1 attrition, crosslinguistic influence and dominance
- 4.Re-exposure to a formerly attrited L1
- 5.General discussion
- Acknowledgements
- Note
References
References (96)
Abutalebi, J., & Green, D. W. (2016). Neuroimaging of language control in bilinguals: Neural adaptation and reserve. Bilingualism: Language and Cognition, 19 (4), 689–698.
Baus, C., Costa, A., & Carreiras, M. (2013). On the effects of second language immersion on first language production. Acta Psychologica, 142 (3), 402–409.
Beatty-Martinez, A. L., & Dussias, P. E. (2019). Adaptive control and brain plasticity. A multi-dimensional account of the bilingual experience and its relation to cognition. In I. A. Sekerina, L. Spradlin, & V. Valian (Eds.), Bilingualism, executive function, and beyond. Questions and insights (pp. 49–66). Amsterdam: John Benjamins.
Bergmann, C., Meulman, N., Stowe, L. A., Sprenger, S. A., & Schmid, M. S. (2015). Prolonged L2 immersion engenders little change in morphosyntactic processing of bilingual natives. NeuroReport, 261, 1065–1070.
Bice, K., & Kroll, J. F. (2015). Native language change during early stages of second language learning. NeuroReport, 26(16), 966–971.
Birdsong, D. (2014). The critical period hypothesis for second language acquisition: Tailering the coat of many colors. In M. Pawlak & L. Aronin (Eds.), Essential topics in applied linguistics and multilingualism (pp. 43–50). Berlin: Springer International Publishing.
(2018). Plasticity, variability and age in second language acquisition and bilingualism. Frontiers in Psychology, 91, 81.
Brown, A., & Gullberg, M. (2013). L1-L2 convergence in clausal packaging in Japanese and English. Bilingualism: Language and Cognition, 16(3), 477–494.
Bylund, E. (2019). Age effects in language attrition. In M. S. Schmid & B. Köpke (Eds.), The Oxford handbook on language attrition (pp. 277–287). Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Cabeza, R., Anderson, N. D., Locantore, J. K., & McIntosh, A. R. (2002). Aging gracefully: Compensatory brain activity in high-performing older adults. NeuroImage, 171, 1394–1402.
Chamorro, G., Sorace, A., & Sturt, P. (2016). What is the source of L1 attrition? The effect of recent L1 re-exposure on Spanish speakers under L1 attrition. Bilingualism: Language and Cognition, 191, 520–532.
Chang, C. B. (2012). Rapid and multifaceted effects of second-language learning on first-language speech production. Journal of Phonetics, 401, 249–268.
(2013). A novelty effect in phonetic drift of the native language. Journal of Phonetics, 411, 520–533.
(2019). Phonetic drift. In M. S. Schmid & B. Köpke (Eds.), The Oxford handbook on language attrition (pp. 191–203). Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Cherciov, M. (2013). Investigating the impact of attitude on first language attrition and second language acquisition from a Dynamic Systems Theory perspective. International Journal of Bilingualism, 17(6), 716–733.
Cook, V. (2013). Multicompetence. In C. Chapelle (Eds.), The encyclopedia of applied linguistics (pp. 3768–3774). Oxford: Wiley-Blackwell.
Curtiss, S., Fromkin, V., Krashen, S., Rigler, D., & Rigler, M. (1974). The linguistic development of Genie. Language, 50(3), 528–554.
De Bot, K., Gommans, P., & Rossing, C. (1991). L1 loss in an L2 environment: Dutch immigrants in France. In H. W. Seliger & R. M. Vago (Eds.), First language attrition (pp. 87–98). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
De Bot, K., & Clyne, M. G. (1994). A 16-year longitudinal study of language attrition in Dutch immigrants in Australia. Journal of Multilingual and Multicultural Development, 15(1), 17–28.
DeLuca, V., Rothman, J., & Pliatsikas, C. (2019). Linguistic immersion and structural effects on the bilingual brain: A longitudinal study. Bilingualism: Language and Cognition, 221, 1160–1175.
DeLuca, V., Rothman, J., Bialystok, E., & Pliatsikas, C. (2020). Duration and extent of bilingual experience modulate neurocognitive outcomes. NeuroImage, 2041, 116222.
Draganski, B., Gaser, C., Busch, V., Schuierer, G., Bogdahn, U., & May, A. (2004). Changes in grey matter induced by training. Nature, 4271, 311–312.
Driemeyer, J., Boyke, J., Gaser, C., Buchel, C., & May, A. (2008). Changes in gray matter induced by learning – revisited. PLoS One, 2008 (3), p. e2669.
Duffau, H. (2014). The huge plastic potential of adult brain and the role of connectomics: New insights provided by serial mappings in glioma surgery. Cortex, 58, 325–337.
Dussias, P. E., Beatty-Martinez, A. L., & Perrotti, L. (2017). Susceptibility to interference affects the second and the first language. Bilingualism: Language and Cognition, 20(4), 681–682.
Dussias, P. E., Perrotti, L., Carlson, M., & Morales, L. (2016). Exposure to a second language can change processing routines in the first language. Paper presented at The International Meeting of the Psychonomic Society, Granada, Spain. May 5–8.
Dussias, P. E., Valdés Kroff, J. R., Beatty-Martinez, A. L., & Johns, M. A. (2019). What language experience tells us about cognition. Variable input and interactional contexts affect bilingual sentence processing. In J. W. Schwieter (Eds.), The handbook of the neuroscience of multilingualism (pp. 467–484). New York, NY: John Wiley & Sons.
Ebbinghaus, H. (1885). Über das Gedächtnis. Untersuchungen zur experimentellen Psychologie. Leipzig: Duncker & Humblot.
Ecke, P. (2004). Language attrition and theories of forgetting: A cross-disciplinary review. International Journal of Bilingualism, 8(3), 321–354.
Ecke, P., & Hall, C. J. (2013). Tracking tip-of-the-tongue states in a multilingual speaker: Evidence of attrition or instability in lexical systems? International Journal of Bilingualism. 171, 734–751.
Elmer, S., Hänggi, J., & Jäncke, L. (2014). Processing demands upon cognitive, linguistic, and articulatory functions promote grey matter plasticity in the adult multilingual brain: Insights from simultaneous interpreters. Cortex, 541, 179–189.
Flege, J. E. (1987). The production of “new” and “similar” phones in a foreign language: Evidence for the effect of equivalence classification. Journal of Phonetics, 15 (1), 47–65.
Flores, C. (2020). Attrition and reactivation of a childhood language: The case of returnee heritage speakers. Language Learning, 70(1), 85–121.
Gargiulo, C., & van de Weijer, J. (2020). Anaphora resolution in L1 Italian in a Swedish-speaking environment before and after L1 re-immersion: A study on attrition. Lingua, 2331, 102746.
Genevska-Hanke, D. (2017). Intrapersonal variation in late L1 attrition and its implications for the competence/performance debate. In N. Levkovych & A. Urdze (Eds.), Linguistik im Nordwesten: Beiträge zum 8. Nordwestdeutschen Linguistischen Kolloquium, 13.–14. November 2015 (pp. 1–31). Bochum: Brockmeyer.
Golestani, N. (2014). Brain structural correlates of individual differences at low-to-high-levels of the language processing hierarchy: A review of new approaches to imaging research. International Journal of Bilingualism, 18(1), 6–34.
Gullifer, J. W., Chai, X. J., Whitford, V., Pivneva, I., Baum, S., Klein, D., & Titone, D. (2018). Bilingual experience and resting-state brain connectivity: Impacts of L2 age of acquisition and social diversity of language use on control networks. Neuropsychologia, 1171, 123–134.
Gürel, A. (2004). Selectivity in L2-induced L1 attrition: A psycholinguistic account. Journal of Neurolinguistics, 17(1), 53–78.
Hamann, C., Rinke, E., & Genevska-Hanke, D. (2019). Bilingual language development: The role of dominance. Frontiers in Psychology, 10 (1064).
Hara, Y. (2015). Brain plasticity and rehabilitation in stroke patients. Journal of Nippon Medical School 2015, 82(1), 4–13.
Hartsuiker, R. J., Pickering, M. J., & Veltkamp, E. (2002). Is syntax separate or shared between languages? Cross-linguistic syntactic priming in Spanish-English bilinguals. Psychological Science, 151, 409–414.
Hebb, D. O. (1949). The organization of behaviour. A neuropsychological theory. New York: Wiley & Sons.
Hofstetter, S., Friedmann, N., & Assaf, Y. (2017). Rapid language-related plasticity: Microstructural changes in the cortex after a short session of new word learning. Brain Structure and Function, 222(3), 1231–1241.
Hosoda, C., Tanaka, K., Nariai, T., Honda, M., & Hanakawa, T. (2013). Dynamic neural network reorganization associated with second language vocabulary learning: A multimodal imaging study. The Journal of Neuroscience, 33(34): 13663–13672.
Jacobs, A., Fricke, M., & Kroll, J. F. (2016). Cross-language activation begins during speech planning and extends into second language speech. Language Learning, 661, 324–353.
Karayayla, T. & Schmid, M. S. (2018). First language attrition as a function of age at onset of bilingualism: First language attainment of Turkish-English bilinguals in the United Kingdom. Language Learning, 69(1), 106–142.
Kasparian, K., Vespignani, F., & Steinhauer, K. (2017). First language attrition induces changes in online morphosyntactic processing and re-analysis: An ERP study of number agreement in complex Italian sentences. Cognitive Science, 411: 1760–1803.
Köpke, B. (2002). Activation thresholds and non-pathological first language attrition. In F. Fabbro (Eds.), Advances in the neurolinguistics of bilingualism. Essays in honor of Michel Paradis (pp. 119–142). Udine: Forum.
(2007). Language attrition at the crossroads of brain, mind, and society. In B. Köpke, M. S. Schmid, M. Keijzer & S. Dostert (Eds.), Language attrition. Theoretical perspectives (pp. 9–39). Amsterdam: John Benjamins.
(2019). First language attrition: From bilingual to monolingual proficiency? In A. de Houwer, & L. Ortega (Eds.), The Cambridge handbook of bilingualism (pp. 349–365). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Köpke, B., & Schmid, M. S. (2004). Language attrition: The next phase. In M. S. Schmid, B. Köpke, M. Keijzer, & L. Weilemar (Eds.), First language attrition: Interdisciplinary perspectives on methodological issues (pp. 1–43). Amsterdam: John Benjamins.
Köpke, B., & Genevska-Hanke, D. (2018). First language attrition and dominance: Same same or different? Frontiers in Psychology, 91, 1963.
Legault, J., Fang, S. -Y., Lan, Y. -L., & Li, P. (2019). Structural brain changes as a function of second language vocabulary training: Effects of learning context. Brain and Cognition, 1341, 90–102.
Li, P., Legault, J., & Litcofsky, K. A. (2014). Neuroplasticity as a function of second language learning: Anatomical changes in the human brain. Cortex, 581, 301–324.
Linck, J. A., Kroll, J. F., & Sunderman, G. (2009). Losing access to the native language while immersed in a second language. Evidence for the role of inhibition in second-language learning. Psychological Science, 20(12), 1507–1515.
Loftus, E. F. (1980). Surprising new insights into how we remember and why we forget. Reading, MA: Addison-Wesley Publishing Co.
Lubrano, V., Prod’homme, K., Démonet, J. -F., & Köpke, B. (2012). Language monitoring in multilingual patients undergoing awake craniotomy: A case study of a German-English-French trilingual patient with a WHO grade II glioma. Journal of Neurolinguistics, 251, 567–578.
MacWhinney, B. (2019). Language attrition and the Competition Model. In M. S. Schmid & B. Köpke (Eds.), The Oxford handbook of language attrition (pp. 7–17). Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Mårtensson, J., Eriksson, J., Bodammer, N. C., Lindgren, M., Johansson, M., Nyberg, L., & Lövdén, M. (2012). Growth of language-related brain areas after foreign language learning. NeuroImage, 631, 240–244.
Mechelli, A., Crinion, J. T., Noppeney, U., O’Doherty, J., Ashburner, J., Frackowiak, R. S., & Price, C. J. (2004). Neurolinguistics: Structural plasticity in the bilingual brain. Nature, 431(7010), 757.
Merzenich, M. M. (2013). Soft-wired: How the new science of brain plasticity can change your life. San Francisco: Parnassus Publishing.
Mickan, A., McQueen, J. M., & Lemhöfer, K. (2020). Between-language competition as a driving force in foreign language attrition. Cognition, 1981, 104218.
Opitz, C. (2013). A dynamic perspective on late bilinguals’ linguistic development in an L2 environment. International Journal of Bilingualism, 17(6), 701–715.
Oppenheim, G., Griffin, Z. M., Pena, E. D., & Bedore, L. M. (2020). Longitudinal evidence for simultaneous bilingual language development with shifting language dominance, and how to explain it. Language Learning, 70(S2), 20–44.
Osterhout, L., McLaughlin, J., Pitkanen, I., Frenck-Mestre, C., & Molinaro, N. (2006). Novice learners, longitudinal designs, and event-related potentials: A paradigm for exploring the neurocognition of second-language processing. Language Learning, 561, 199–230.
Osterhout, L., Poliakov, A., Inoue, K., McLaughlin, J., Valentine, G., Pitkanen, I., Frenck-Mestre, C., & Hirschensohn, J. (2008). Second language learning and changes in the brain. Journal of Neurolinguistics, 21(6), 509–521.
Paradis, M. (2007). L1 attrition features predicted by a neurolinguistic theory of bilingualism. In B. Köpke, M. S. Schmid, M. Keijzer, & S. Dostert (Eds.), Language attrition. Theoretical perspectives (pp. 121–133). Amsterdam: John Benjamins.
Penfield, W., & Roberts, L. (1959). Speech and brain mechanisms. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.
Pierce, L. J., Chen, J. K., Delcenserie, A., Genesee, F., & Klein, D. (2015). Past experience shapes ongoing neural patterns for language. Nature Communications, 61, 10073.
Pliatsikas, C. (2019). Multilingualism and brain plasticity. In J. W. Schwieter (Ed.), The handbook of the neuroscience of multilingualism (pp. 230–251). New York, NY: John Wiley & Sons.
Raboyeau, G., De Boissezon, X., Marie, N., Balduyck, S., Puel, M., Bezy, C., Demonet, J. -F., & Cardebat, D. (2008). Right hemisphere activation in recovery from aphasia. Lesion effect or function recruitment? Neurology, 70(4), 290–298.
Sancier, M. L., & Fowler, C. A. (1997). Gestural drift in a bilingual speaker of Brazilian Portuguese and English. Journal of Phonetics, 25 (4), 421–436.
Schlegel, A., Rudelson, J. J., & Tse, P. (2012). White matter structure changes as adults learn a second language. Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience, 241, 1664–1670.
Schmid, M. S. (2002). First language attrition, use, and maintenance: The case of German Jews in Anglophone countries. Amsterdam: John Benjamins.
(2011). Contact x time. External factors and variability in L1 attrition. In M. S. Schmid & W. Lowie (Eds.), Modeling bilingualism: From structure to chaos (pp. 155–176). Amsterdam: John Benjamins.
(2019a). The impact of frequency of use and length of residence on L1 attrition. In M. S. Schmid & B. Köpke (Eds.), The Oxford handbook of language attrition (pp. 288–303). Oxford: Oxford University Press.
(2019b). Annotated bibliography. In M. S. Schmid & B. Köpke (Eds.), The Oxford handbook of language attrition (pp. 509–541). Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Schmid, M. S., & Dusseldorp, E. (2010). Quantitative analyses in a multivariate study of language attrition: The impact of extralinguistic factors. Second Language Research, 26(1), 125–160.
Schmid, M. S., & Köpke, B. (2017a). The relevance of first language attrition to theories of bilingual development. Linguistic Approaches to Bilingualism, 7(6), 637–667.
(2017b). When is a bilingual an attriter? Response to the commentaries. Linguistic Approaches to Bilingualism, 7(6), 763–770.
Steinhauer, K., & Kasparian, K. (2020). Brain plasticity in adulthood: ERP evidence for L1-attrition in lexicon and morphosyntax after predominant L2 use. Language Learning, 70(2), 171–193.
Steinkrauss, R., & Schmid, M. S. (2016). Entrenchment and language attrition. In H. -J. Schmid (Eds.), Entrenchment and the psychology of language learning: How we reorganize and adapt linguistic knowledge (pp. 367–383). Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter.
Stolberg, D., & Münch, A. (2010). “Die Muttersprache vergisst man nicht” – or do you? A case study in L1 attrition and its (partial) reversal. Bilingualism: Language and Cognition, 13(1), 19–31.
Sulpizio, S., Del Maschio, N., Del Mauro, G., Fedeli, D., & Abutalebi, J. (2020). Bilingualism as a gradient measure modulates functional connectivity of language and control networks. NeuroImage, 2051, 116306.
Takeuchi, H., Sekiguchi, A., Taki, Y., Yokoyama, S., Yomogida, Y., Komuro, N., Yamanouchi, T., Suzuki, S., & Kawashima, R. (2010). Training of working memory impacts structural connectivity. Journal of Neuroscience, 30(9): 3297–3303.
Thierry, G., & Sanoudaki, E. (2012). Activation syntaxique non-sélective à la langue chez le bilingue précoce. Revue Française de Linguistique Appliquée, XVII (2), 33–48.
van Hell, J. G., & Dijkstra, T. (2002). Foreign language knowledge can influence native language performance in exclusively native contexts. Psychonomic Bulletin & Review, 91, 780–789.
Ventureyra, V. A. G. & Pallier, C. (2004). In search of the lost language: The case of adopted Koreans in France. In M. S. Schmid, B. Köpke, M. Keijzer, & L. Weilemar (Eds.), First language attrition: Interdisciplinary perspectives on methodological issues (pp. 207–221). Amsterdam: John Benjamins.
White, E. J., Hutka, S. A., Williams, L. J., & Moreno, S. (2013). Learning, neural plasticity and sensitive periods: Implications for language acquisition, music training and transfer across the lifespan. Frontiers in Systems Neuroscience, 20(7), 90.
Xiang, H., van Leeuwen, T. M., Dediu, D., Roberts, L., Norris, D. G., & Hagoort, P. (2015). L2-proficiency-dependent laterality shift in structural connectivity of brain language pathways. Brain Connectivity, 5(6), 349–361.
Yilmaz, G. (2011). Complex embeddings in free speech production among late Turkish-Dutch bilinguals. Language, Interaction, Acquisition, 2(2), 221–250.
Cited by (2)
Cited by two other publications
Coco, M. I., G. Smith, R. Spelorzi & M. Garraffa
This list is based on CrossRef data as of 25 november 2025. Please note that it may not be complete. Sources presented here have been supplied by the respective publishers. Any errors therein should be reported to them.
