The Impact of Language on Brain Structure and Function.

Native speakers of German and Arabic have different brain structures due to increased connectivity in areas needed to handle the specific natures of their respective languages. The study supports the Sapir-Whorf hypothesis that language structure shapes our worldview and how we think. The research also explains why people may find it difficult to learn a language with highly different structures from their native tongue. The study used magnetic resonance tomography to study the brain connectivity of 47 native German speakers and the same number of people who learned Arabic as their first language.