Their Brains Are Different

A study by some German researchers has found empirical support for the Sapir-Whorf hypothesis: Anna Demming reports at Live Science:

A person’s native language may shape how their brain builds connections between different hubs of information processing, a new brain scan study reveals.

The observed differences in these language network structures were related to linguistic characteristics in the native languages of the study participants: German and Arabic.

“So the difference we find there shouldn’t be due to different ethnic background but really because of the language we [they] speak,” Alfred Anwander(opens in new tab), a researcher at the Max Planck Institute for Human Cognitive and Brain Sciences in Germany who led the study, told Live Science. The research was published online in February in the journal NeuroImage(opens in new tab).

and

Discussing the paper at a seminar(opens in new tab), Patrick Friedrich(opens in new tab), a researcher at the Institute for Neuroscience and Medicine at Forschungszentrum Jülich in Germany who was not involved in the study, noted that the brain’s language network is understood to be “more or less universal among participants of different native languages.” Yet, scientists have observed differences in how the brain processes second languages.

“I thought this study was really interesting because it shows for the first time a structural difference depending on the native experience,” rather than languages learned later, Friedrich said.

The “Sapir-Whorf hypothesis” also known as “linguistic relativity” is the idea that language influences the speaker’s worldview and thinking. I don’t believe in the strong version of that theory which is that the language you speak dictates the concepts you can understand. I do believe in the weak version which is that language affects what and how you think.

None of this should be particularly surprising. Like a muscle the brain develops in specific ways when exercised and different languages place different requirements on the speaker. This study is interesting in that it focuses on the “mother tongue”, i.e. the first language you learn to speak. Clearly, more study is needed but but it certainly provides some food for thought.

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