Why Your Native-Speaking Brain is Lazy but Incredibly Efficient

MIT scientists find new clues on how the brain processes multiple languages

Rui Alves
Babel
Published in
5 min readMay 28, 2024

--

Doctor arranging scanning device on head of a female patient.
Photo by DC Studio on Freepik

I speak five languages and teach three: two modern ones and a dead one, Latin. Until recently, I thought my polyglot brain was always in overdrive, but a new study says otherwise.

--

--

Rui Alves
Babel
Editor for

Language teacher, linguist, life coach, published author (joined the Army and worked for the EU). A publisher, digital ronin, musician and alchemist of sound.