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Cambridge, MA – A groundbreaking study from MIT has revealed that the human brain treats invented languages like Esperanto and Klingon in much the same way as it does natural languages like English or Mandarin. Researchers have found that the brain’s language processing network activates when individuals listen to constructed languages in which they are proficient, mirroring the response to their native tongues.
The study, published this week in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, utilized functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) to examine the brain activity of nearly 50 speakers of various constructed languages, or “conlangs,” over a single weekend.
“We find that constructed languages very much recruit the same system as natural languages, which suggests that the key feature that is necessary to engage the system may have to do with the kinds of meanings that both kinds of languages can express,” said Evelina Fedorenko, an associate professor of neuroscience at MIT and senior author of the study.
The research team, led by MIT postdoc Saima Malik-Moraleda, focused on languages like Esperanto, created in the late 1800s to facilitate international communication, as well as fictional languages from popular culture, including Klingon (“Star Trek”), Na’vi (“Avatar”), and High Valyrian and Dothraki (“Game of Thrones”).
The researchers discovered that when participants listened to sentences in their proficient conlang, the same brain regions responsible for processing native languages lit up. This finding challenges the notion that languages must evolve naturally over time or have a large speaker base to be processed as true languages by the brain.
“It helps us narrow down this question of what a language is, and do it empirically, by testing how our brain responds to stimuli that might or might not be language-like,” said Malik-Moraleda.
The study also distinguished constructed languages from programming languages, such as Python, which activate a different brain network associated with complex cognitive tasks.
The key difference, researchers suggest, lies in the ability to convey meanings about the world or the speaker’s internal state. “All of the languages, both natural and constructed, express meanings related to inner and outer worlds,” Fedorenko explained. “Whereas programming languages are much more similar to math.”
The researchers now plan to investigate Lojban, a conlang designed to minimize ambiguity, to further refine their understanding of the features that activate the brain’s language network.
Disclaimer: This article is based on scientific research and should not be interpreted as an endorsement of any particular constructed language. The findings reflect brain activity during specific controlled experiments and may not fully represent the complex social and cultural aspects of language. Readers should consult with qualified professionals for further information on language acquisition and brain function.
