The language network in the brain shows similar properties across 45 languages spanning 12 language ‘families’. The language areas are lateralized to the left hemisphere, selective for language, and strongly functionally inter-connected. Variability among speakers of different languages is similar to the variability that has been reported among English speakers.
This is a preview of subscription content, access via your institution
Access options
Access Nature and 54 other Nature Portfolio journals
Get Nature+, our best-value online-access subscription
$29.99 / 30 days
cancel any time
Subscribe to this journal
Receive 12 print issues and online access
$209.00 per year
only $17.42 per issue
Buy this article
- Purchase on Springer Link
- Instant access to full article PDF
Prices may be subject to local taxes which are calculated during checkout
References
Evans, N. & Levinson, S. C. The myth of language universals: language diversity and its importance for cognitive science. Behav. Brain Sci. 32, 429–448 (2009). A review article on cross-linguistic diversity.
Evlab Localizers for Diverse Languages https://evlab.mit.edu/aliceloc (2022). A website where we make the ‘localizer’ fMRI paradigms for different languages available.
Lipkin, B. et al. LanA (Language Atlas): a probabilistic atlas for the language network based on fMRI data from>800 individuals. Preprint at bioRxiv https://doi.org/10.1101/2022.03.06.483177 (2022). Describes the fMRI approach adopted here and quantifies inter-individual variability.
Fedorenko, E. & Blank, I. A. Broca’s area is not a natural kind. Trends Cogn. Sci. 24, 270–284 (2020). Summarizes evidence for the separation between language and other cognitive abilities.
Blasi, D., Anastasopoulos, A. & Neubig, G. Systematic inequalities in language technology performance across the world’s languages. In Proc. 60th Annual Meeting of the Association for Computational Linguistics (Volume 1: Long Papers) 5486–5505 (2022). Quantifies disparities in natural language processing (NLP) research and makes policy recommendations for promoting more global and equitable language technologies.
Additional information
Publisher’s note Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.
This is a summary of: Malik-Moraleda, S. et al. An investigation across 45 languages and 12 language families reveals a universal language network. Nat. Neurosci. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41593-022-01114-5 (2022).
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
The brain responds in similar ways to 45 diverse languages. Nat Neurosci 25, 982–983 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41593-022-01115-4
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41593-022-01115-4