magnetoencephalography: a review

In this review we show how magnetoencephalography (MEG) is a constructive tool for language research and review MEG findings in second language (L2) research. MEG is the magnetic analog of electroencephalography (EEG), and its primary advantage over other cross-sectional (e.g. magnetic resonance imaging, or positron emission tomography) functional imaging methods is the superior temporal resolution it affords. After an overview of MEG technol-ogy, research exploring visual language processing in L2, non-native phonemic contrasts and syntactic processing in L2 are reviewed. We also review MEG investigations of the advantages of bilingualism and of language lateralization differences across lan-guages with different characteristics