Genesis 11:1
"In a large-scale functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) study, neuroscientists from MIT and Harvard University evaluated the claim of language universality with respect to core features of its neural architecture.
The world’s languages exhibit striking diversity, with differences spanning
the sound inventories,
the complexity of derivational and functional morphology,
the ways in which the conceptual space is carved up into lexical categories and the rules for how words can combine into phrases and sentences.
To foster inclusivity in language research, Dr. Saima Malik-Moraleda and her colleagues from MIT and Harvard University examined whether there are shared brain responses across 45 languages in 12 language families: Afro-Asiatic, Austro-Asiatic, Austronesian, Dravidian, Indo-European, Japonic, Koreanic, Atlantic-Congo, Sino-Tibetan, Turkic, Uralic and an isolate, Basque, which is effectively a one-language family.
All native languages activated large areas of
--the left frontal,
--temporal and parietal cortex in the brain.
The responses of this language-related network were stronger and
The network was more responsive during listening to native languages than when performing a spatial working memory or an arithmetic task, suggesting that this common network was selective for language processing.
“This finding is a first step in deeper examinations of the neural processing of different languages, which will require larger groups of native speakers for each language,” the authors said."
SciNews
