Language

Reading without ever seeing a letter may sound counterintuitive. In most societies, written language is inseparable from vision: pages, screens, symbols scanned by the eyes. Reading appears so tightly bound to sight that imagining it in any other form seems almost impossible. However, braille challenges this assumption. As their fingers glide across lines of raised…

Some oddities slip into everyday life like flashes of absurdity. In Morocco, for reasons no one has yet explained, the mere mention of the word “honey” can trigger uncontrollable outbursts in certain individuals a phenomenon I have personally witnessed. These are not frowns or looks of irritation, but sudden screams, insults, and sometimes even physical…

The absence of functional speech in some autistic individuals often leads to a general underestimation of their cognitive and linguistic abilities. This perception is rooted in a confusion between language and spoken output, as if not speaking aloud equated to lacking inner language or comprehension. However, several recent studies challenge this reductive view. Reading and…

Can learning a foreign language still stimulate the aging brain? Once considered a marginal question in cognitive science, this issue is now taking center stage in the neuroscience of aging. As life expectancy continues to rise, preserving brain function has become a critical concern. Many strategies have been proposed to slow age-related cognitive decline, but…

Professor M. lived surrounded by books, in a house lined with ancient volumes and dictionaries. Reading and teaching were his life, language was his home, as familiar to him as the walls he lived in. Until the day words began to slip away. One morning, while preparing a lecture, something gave way. The words hovered…

Reading is one of the most fascinating feats of the human brain, a mysterious intersection of culture and biology that astonishes with both its apparent simplicity and the astonishing complexity it conceals. We move our eyes across black lines on a page or screen, and suddenly, an entire world unfolds, rich with thoughts, emotions, and…

We often assume that thinking means talking to ourselves silently. But is that truly the case?Imagine a world without words. Could we still reason, anticipate, and solve problems? Some argue that without language, complex thought would be impossible, that our ideas would be limited to vague sensations and blurred images. However, both scientific evidence and…

Some silences speak louder than words. In Mr Tan’s case, his silence was not an absence, but a riddle. When he arrived at Dr. Paul Broca’s office, he brought with him a fundamental question: How does the brain create what makes us human, our language, our ability to name the world around us, to share…

Language learning is often viewed as an asset, an opportunity to broaden cultural and cognitive horizons. However, many polyglots report a peculiar challenge. As they acquire a new language, they sometimes struggle to recall words in the languages they had already mastered. This intriguing phenomenon raises a fundamental question: Is our brain designed to accumulate…