Media release

From: Springer Nature

Neuroscience: Speech perception is not lost in translation

The human brain responds to the sounds of both familiar and unfamiliar languages in a similar way, according to research published in Nature. The findings improve our understanding of how speech is processed by the brain and might guide future approaches to language learning and rehabilitation.

All spoken languages share some acoustic–phonetic features, such as vowels and consonants, but they differ in how these sounds are combined into words. Previous research has shown that the superior temporal gyrus region of the brain has a key role in speech perception, but whether it processes familiar languages in the same way as unfamiliar ones remains unclear.

Edward Chang and colleagues recorded brain activity from 34 participants who spoke either Spanish, English or Mandarin as their native language, as they listened to sentences in their native language or in an unfamiliar foreign language. They found that most activity came from the superior temporal gyrus and was similar for both familiar and unfamiliar languages. However, when listening to a known language, the brain signals were enhanced in response to features linked to words, such as word boundaries (the beginning and end of words) and word frequency. In Spanish–English bilingual participants, these signals were enhanced for both languages.

The findings suggest that although the brain processes basic speech sounds in the same way across languages, experience helps it to group those sounds into words. This may explain why learning a new language is challenging: it is not just about hearing the sounds, but also about learning how they fit together. Future research should explore whether similar effects occur in other brain areas and in skills such as music, the authors suggest.