Constructed languages are processed by the same brain mechanisms as natural languages

• 成果类型: Article
• 署名作者: Malik-Moraleda, Saima; Taliaferro, Maya; Shannon, Steve; Jhingan, Niharika; Swords, Sara; Peterson, David J.; Frommer, Paul; Okrand, Marc; Sams, Jessie; Cardwell, Ramsey; Freeman, Cassie; Fedorenko, Evelina
• 署名单位: Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT); Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT); Harvard University; University of Southern California
• 刊物名称: PROCEEDINGS OF THE NATIONAL ACADEMY OF SCIENCES OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA
• ISSN/ISSBN: 0027-8504
• DOI: 10.1073/pnas.2313473122
• 发表日期: 2025-03-25
• 关键词: functional localization; cultural-evolution; sign-language; fmri evidence; brocas area; ORGANIZATION; mind; COMMUNICATION; dissociation; 2nd-language

摘要

What constitutes a language? Natural languages share features with other domains: from math, to music, to gesture. However, the brain mechanisms that process linguistic input are highly specialized, showing little response to diverse nonlinguistic tasks. Here, we examine constructed languages (conlangs) to ask whether they draw on the same neural mechanisms as natural languages or whether they instead pattern with domains like math and programming languages. Using individual-subject fMRI analyses, we show that understanding conlangs recruits the same brain areas as natural language comprehension. This result holds for Esperanto (n = 19 speakers) and four fictional conlangs [Klingon (n = 10), Na'vi (n = 9), High Valyrian (n = 3), and Dothraki (n 3)]. These findings suggest that conlangs and natural languages share critical features that allow them to draw on the same representations and computations, implemented in the left-lateralized network of brain areas. The features of conlangs that differentiate them from natural languages-including recent creation by a single individual, often for an esoteric purpose, the small number of speakers, and the fact that these languages are typically learned in adulthood-appear to not be consequential for the reliance on the same cognitive and neural mechanisms. We argue that the critical shared feature of conlangs and natural languages is that they are symbolic systems capable of expressing an open-ended range of meanings about our outer and inner worlds.