The Impact of Native Language on Brain Wiring.

A new study by scientists at the Max Planck Institute for Human Cognitive and Brain Sciences in Leipzig has found evidence that the language we speak shapes the connectivity in our brains that may underlie the way we think. Using neuroimaging to analyze neural connectivity in native German and native Arabic speakers, researchers found stronger connectivity between the right and left hemispheres in Arabic speakers, and stronger connectivity in the left hemisphere language area in German speakers. The findings suggest that the structural language connectome develops and is modulated by environmental factors such as the characteristic processing demands of the native language.