Theodore Talk: Language Processing in the Brain Across Diverse Languages and Speakers

A staggering 7,000 languages are spoken and signed worldwide, and most people speak two or more. Yet, neuroscience research has largely focused on monolingual speakers of just a few dozen languages, leaving our understanding of the language system incomplete and potentially biased.

In this talk, Saima Malik-Moraleda, who received her PhD in Neurobiology and Behavior from Harvard University, will present a more comprehensive view of how the brain processes language by examining both diverse languages and diverse speaker populations using precision fMRI.

Malik-Moraleda will examine whether the core properties of the left-lateralized language network -- its anatomical organization, hemispheric bias, selectivity for linguistic input, and strong internal connectivity -- generalize beyond English to dozens of typologically diverse natural languages. She will also probe constructed languages (e.g., Esperanto, Klingon, Na'vi, High Valyrian, Dothraki) to ask what makes a language, a 'language', and will present data from polyglots (speakers of five or more languages) to examine how multiple languages of varying proficiency engage the language network.

Finally, she will explore how language and executive function tasks are processed in monolingual versus bilingual speakers, highlighting both shared and distinct patterns. Taken together, these findings suggest that the brain's language network is remarkably robust and universal, with activity that varies systematically with proficiency rather than language identity.

Register for this presentation here.

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Theodore Talks take place on Zoom the fourth Sunday of each month at 2:30 p.m. CT.

A list of future Theodore Talks can be found on the Mensa National Events Calendar at https://www.us.mensa.org/attend/calendar/.

Questions?  Contact Brad Lucht at MensaTheodoreTalks@gmail.com.