![]() Protecting older adults from the age-related effects of cognitive decline is one of the greatest challenges of the next few decades as it places increasing pressure on families, health systems, and economies on a global scale. Over the next fifty years, the number of older adults is set to reach record levels. These findings provide the first clear dissociation of specific dorsal striatum structures in polyglot language control, roles that are consistent with previously described involvement of these regions in nonlinguistic executive control. Our findings suggest that, during SI, the caudate nucleus is implicated in the overarching selection and control of the lexico-semantic system, while the putamen is implicated in ongoing control of language output. This analysis showed significant modulation of the putamen by the duration of simultaneity. We examined neural correlates of the management of simultaneity by correlating brain activity during interpretation with the duration of simultaneous speaking and hearing. The similarity between the networks underlying bilingual language control and general executive control supports the notion that the frequently reported bilingual advantage on executive tasks stems from the day-to-day demands of language control in the multilingual brain. Comparing brain responses arising during simultaneous interpretation (SI) with those arising during simultaneous repetition revealed activation of regions known to be involved in speech perception and production, alongside a network incorporating the caudate nucleus that is known to be implicated in domain-general cognitive control. We used functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) to examine the neural basis of extreme multilingual language control in a group of 50 multilingual participants. Finally, we conclude by summarising the novel contribution of these studies to date and potential directions for future research. We highlight the validity of the findings by comparing the results to those from functional imaging studies. We group them into those that investigated (1) the perception of novel speech sounds, (2) the links between speech sounds and their meaning, (3) speech production, and (4) reading. At present, there are relatively few structural imaging studies of language. We report studies that have used two different techniques: voxel-based morphometry of whole brain grey or white matter images and diffusion tensor imaging. In this review paper, we focus on structural imaging studies of language that have utilised behavioural measures in order to investigate the neural correlates of language skills in the undamaged brain. In recent years, the demonstration that structural changes can occur in the human brain beyond those associated with development, ageing and neuropathology has revealed a new approach to studying the neural basis of behaviour. One of the criticisms of my recent book Testing Communicative Performance (Pergamon Press, 1980) has gone something like this: ‘The general ideas are all very fine, but let us see the actual tests before we can judge for ourselves if those ideas are practicable.’ ![]() I hope in a series of short articles to describe the broad ideas of communicative testing and to show how these ideas can be translated into actual test items in actual tests. And yet, in spite of the difficulty of reconciling the demands of realism and the requirements of scientific measurement, there are now several tests or examinations being developed to bring the broad ideas of functionalism into practical classroom use. Perhaps in no other area of language teaching is the ‘form versus function’ battle being more vigorously waged. It is often said that the moves towards realism and communication in the teaching of language are not being matched by developments in language testing that we are having to test progress in ‘communicative’ learning programmes by tests built on ‘structural’ lines. ![]()
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