The study on polyglots offers valuable insights into how the human brain processes language. Using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), researchers monitored brain activity in polyglots as they listened to passages in various languages. They found that the brain’s language-processing network was most active when polyglots heard languages they were proficient in, suggesting efficient utilization of linguistic operations. Surprisingly, polyglots showed decreased brain response when listening to their native language, indicating heightened efficiency in processing familiar languages. This “native language effect” was more pronounced during simpler linguistic tasks.
Insights from Polyglots: How the Brain Processes Language
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