For people who speak many languages, there’s something special about their native tongue
An MIT study finds the brains of polyglots expend comparatively little effort when processing their native language.
How cognition changes before dementia hits
Study finds language-processing difficulties are an indicator — in addition to memory loss — of amnestic mild cognitive impairment.
Investigating and preserving Quechua
MIT students studied the Indigenous language during a new Independent Activities Period course to gain exposure and understand the language’s cultural and practical value.
Projects investigating Swahili, global media win SHASS Humanities Awards
The awards offer opportunities to expand research into unique areas of scholarship.
Simons Center’s collaborative approach propels autism research, at MIT and beyond
Team-based targeted projects, multi-mentor fellowships ensure that scientists studying social cognition, behavior, and autism integrate multiple perspectives and approaches to pressing questions.
AI agents help explain other AI systems
MIT researchers introduce a method that uses artificial intelligence to automate the explanation of complex neural networks.
Complex, unfamiliar sentences make the brain’s language network work harder
A new study finds that language regions in the left hemisphere light up when reading uncommon sentences, while straightforward sentences elicit little response.
3 Questions: Wiebke Denecke on a landmark project for Chinese literature
The Hsu-Tang Library of Classical Chinese Literature brings three millennia of classic texts to the world, in bilingual editions.
How “blue” and “green” appeared in a language that didn’t have words for them
People of a remote Amazonian society who learned Spanish as a second language began to interpret colors in a new way, an MIT study has found.
How adults understand what kids are saying
It’s not easy to parse young children’s words, but adults’ beliefs about what children want to communicate helps make it possible, a new study finds.
Re-imagining our theories of language
Department of Brain and Cognitive Sciences faculty members Ev Fedorenko, Ted Gibson, and Roger Levy believe they can answer a fundamental question: What is the purpose of language?
Multi-AI collaboration helps reasoning and factual accuracy in large language models
Researchers use multiple AI models to collaborate, debate, and improve their reasoning abilities to advance the performance of LLMs while increasing accountability and factual accuracy.
Speaking hypothetically
In new research, MIT linguists explore how human language handles leaps from the here and now.
Studying how children learn words with no meaning
Project leaders at the MIT Language Acquisition Lab say their research could shed new light on the nature of language learning.
On a mission to uplift others and save the endangered Marma language
For Rani Ukhengching Marma from Bangladesh, protecting the Indigenous language also means preserving her culture, traditional knowledge, and generational wisdom.