Hemispheric asymmetries in bilinguals: Tongue similarity affects lateralization of second language

Dependent variables were number of responses associated to words presented at the left vs. right ear and reaction time. Results showed a significant right ear advantage (REA) for number of responses in both languages and in both groups. However, the REA for L2 (English) processing was stronger in the German group. Reaction times were significantly lower during L1 processing and showed a trend towards the results obtained with the number of response variable. This study provides neuropsychological evidence pointing to a different lateralization pattern in the elaboration of a same L2 if L1 comes from different linguistic roots.