How Does the Human Brain Accommodate 6,500 Languages?

Abstract

Thousands of languages are currently used around the world, and while they have many commonalities, they also vary greatly at every level of structure. This review examines how the human brain underpins these crosslinguistic similarities and differences, considering evidence from both native speakers of particular languages and multilingual speakers with well-consolidated second and ulterior languages. Although extant studies are limited, two main patterns seem consistent. First, typologically different languages appear to rely on the same left-dominant frontotemporal network, variously engaged across phonological, grammatical, and semantic tasks. Second, typologically different languages also seem to sculpt the core network, and other brain regions, in distinctive ways. Recurrent experience with a particular language's unique properties (e.g., lexical tone, rich morphology, signed classifier constructions) leads to observable language-specific neural signatures involving connectivity, lateralization, and regional recruitment. We conclude by sketching a new pan-linguistic framework for future neurolinguistic research.