Hull, Rachel Senior Lecturer

My primary area of interest is the neurobehavioral bases of language over the lifespan. In particular, I am interested in identifying (a) the ways in which cortical pathways for language processing are influenced by systematic differences in early language experience (e.g., bilingualism) and (b) how these pathway differences relate to executive functions over the lifespan (e.g., the robustness of working memory). Health-related effects of cognitive decline cost the health care system millions of dollars each year, but new research suggests that certain kinds of bilingualism may defend the brain from age-related cognitive losses. However, very little is known about the neural substrates that may underlie this defense. The rationale of my research program is that identification of the neural mechanisms associated with different language histories will lay the groundwork for investigating precisely whether and how bilingualism is uniquely associated with a reduction in age-related cognitive decline.