People who speak many languages have smaller language networks
The same language system appears across about three dozen languages, but it is more compact in people juggling many of them.
Wu Tsai Neurosciences Institute, Stanford · A new precision neuroscience of language (Big Ideas in Neuroscience) | Cory ShainPeople who speak very many languages have smaller language networks in the brain than people who speak just one.
That is the puzzling result from work on hyperpolyglots, people who self-report speaking very many languages, described by neurolinguist Cory Shain. Their language network, the connected set of brain areas that handles language, was systematically smaller than in people who speak one language.
You might expect the opposite. A network with more responsibilities would seem to need to be bigger. Shain said the smaller size may be evidence of efficiency pressures, as one possible explanation.
The same network shows up in language after language, with differences. Across about three dozen languages, variability between languages is no greater than variability between individuals who speak the same language, and within hyperpolyglots the responses to different languages are highly overlapped.
Questions people ask
What exactly is the language network?
The language network is a connected set of areas that responds much more to meaningful sentences than to similar but meaningless speech sounds. It is mapped separately in each person because its location differs from person to person.
How many languages does a hyperpolyglot speak?
Shain did not give a cutoff in this discussion. He described hyperpolyglots as people who self-reported speaking very many languages.
Does having a smaller language network mean their language ability is worse?
Not necessarily. Shain raised efficiency as one possible explanation, meaning a smaller network could reflect a system that does its work with less tissue. The finding is about the size of the network, not about poorer language ability.