In her review article “The Neurocognitive Underpinnings of Second Language Processing: Knowledge Gains from the Past and Future Outlook,” Distinguished Professor Janet van Hell presented a rigorous review of the most prominent electrophysiological and neuroimaging research on second language (L2) learning and processing and various promising future directions.

CRediT author statement–Clara D. Martin: conceptualization; writing–original draft preparation; writing–review & editing; funding acquisition. Antje Stoehr: conceptualization; writing–original draft preparation; writing–review & editing; funding acquisition. The writing of this commentary was supported by institutional grants from the Basque Government [BERC 2022–2025 program] and the Spanish State Research Agency [BCBL Severo Ochoa excellence accreditation CEX2020-001010/AEI/10.13039/501100011033] awarded to the BCBL. Further support was given by the European Research Council (ERC) under the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation program [grant agreement No 819093 to CDM]; and the Spanish State Research Agency [PID2020-113926GB-I00 to CDM; PID2021-123578NAI00/AEI/10.13039/501100011033/FEDER, UE, & FJC2020-044978-I to AS]. The authors declare no competing interests.