'Universal language network' identified in human brains: neuroscientists

Neuroscientists have identified a “universal language network” in the human brain, one that could reveal the basic cognitive processes behind all spoken language.

This neural network, which had already been mapped out with English speakers, has now been proven to exist in speakers of 45 different languages representing 12 distinct language families, according to the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT).

“This study is very foundational,” Evelina Fedorenko, professor of neuroscience at MIT and member of MIT’s McGovern Institute for Brain Research, said in a press release. “Now that we see the basic properties seem to be general across languages, we can ask about potential differences between languages and language families in how they are implemented in the brain, and we can study phenomena that don’t really exist in English.”

MIT’s findings, which were based on brain-imaging studies involving speakers of 45 languages – including English, French, Mandarin and Cantonese -- pointed to a key location in the brain’s left hemisphere and other parts of the frontal and temporal lobes, which lit up regardless of the language being spoken.

What makes this recent brain-mapping interesting, says MIT, is how this ‘universal language network’ bridges speakers of languages with major discrepancies in tone and rhythm.

Tonal languages such as Mandarin or Cantonese, for instance, convey different meanings through shifts in their tone or pitch, and this tonality differs from the mere phonetic meanings of English. Research has shown that such discrepancies evoke different cognitive reactions in the brain.

But this universal language network, MIT says, can deepen an understanding of how human communication evolves, showing how the brain deploys language in ways that are more foundational than differences in sound.

“There has been growing awareness for many years of the need to look at more languages, if you want to make claims about how language works,” Fedorenko, who was the senior author of the study, said in the press release.

MIT says researchers are working to expand their study beyond the 45 languages assessed.