ArticleCerebral cortex (New York, N.Y. : 1991)2021
The Small and Efficient Language Network of Polyglots and Hyper-polyglots.
Article in Cerebral cortex (New York, N.Y. : 1991), 2021. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 12 papers.
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Who cites it
12 citing papers in PubMed.
- Functional identification of language-responsive sensors in individual participants in MEG investigations.Journal of neurophysiology · 2026Article
- Language comprehension in chronic aphasia relies on the language network, not the Multiple Demand network.medRxiv : the preprint server for health sciences · 2026Article
- Dense Phenotyping of Human Brain Network Organization Using Precision fMRI.Annual review of psychology · 2026Review
- Efficient neural encoding as revealed by bilingualism.Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America · 2025Article
- Brain activation for language and its relationship to cognitive and linguistic measures.Cerebral cortex (New York, N.Y. : 1991) · 2025Article
- Constructed languages are processed by the same brain mechanisms as natural languages.Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America · 2025Article
- Functional characterization of the language network of polyglots and hyperpolyglots with precision fMRI.Cerebral cortex (New York, N.Y. : 1991) · 2024Article
- Functional characterization of the language network of polyglots and hyperpolyglots with precision fMRI.bioRxiv : the preprint server for biology · 2024Article
- A Comparison of White Matter Brain Differences in Monolingual and Highly Proficient Multilingual Speakers.Neurobiology of language (Cambridge, Mass.) · 2024Article
- Probabilistic atlas for the language network based on precision fMRI data from >800 individuals.Scientific data · 2022Article
- The Domain-General Multiple Demand Network Is More Active in Early Balanced Bilinguals Than Monolinguals During Executive Processing.Neurobiology of language (Cambridge, Mass.) · 2021Article
- Examining Individual Differences in Language Learning: A Neurocognitive Model of Language Aptitude.Neurobiology of language (Cambridge, Mass.) · 2021Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
4 authors.
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Abstract
Acquiring a foreign language is challenging for many adults. Yet certain individuals choose to acquire sometimes dozens of languages and often just for fun. Is there something special about the minds and brains of such polyglots? Using robust individual-level markers of language activity, measured with fMRI, we compared native language processing in polyglots versus matched controls. Polyglots (n = 17, including nine "hyper-polyglots" with proficiency in 10-55 languages) used fewer neural resources to process language: Their activations were smaller in both magnitude and extent. This difference was spatially and functionally selective: The groups were similar in their activation of two other brain networks-the multiple demand network and the default mode network. We hypothesize that the activation reduction in the language network is experientially driven, such that the acquisition and use of multiple languages makes language processing generally more efficient. However, genetic and longitudinal studies will be critical to distinguish this hypothesis from the one whereby polyglots' brains already differ at birth or early in development. This initial characterization of polyglots' language network opens the door to future investigations of the cognitive and neural architecture of individuals who gain mastery of multiple languages, including changes in this architecture with linguistic experiences.
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