Thinking exists without language

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Thinking and various tasks such as spatial memory, music perception, and programming can activate different parts of the brain without involving the language network. The high level comprehension of language is not limited to spoken or written forms, but rather focuses on comprehension regardless of the medium. The language network is activated from the early stages of language acquisition and remains active across multiple languages. Even proficient programming skills do not activate the language network, highlighting the separation between thinking and language as distinct cognitive processes.

Edward Gibson is a psycholinguistics professor at MIT and heads the MIT Language Lab. Please support this podcast by checking out our sponsors:
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Transcript: https://lexfridman.com/edward-gibson-transcript

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OUTLINE:
Here’s the timestamps for the episode. On some podcast players you should be able to click the timestamp to jump to that time.
(00:00) – Introduction
(10:53) – Human language
(14:59) – Generalizations in language
(20:46) – Dependency grammar
(30:45) – Morphology
(39:20) – Evolution of languages
(42:40) – Noam Chomsky
(1:26:46) – Thinking and language
(1:40:16) – LLMs
(1:53:14) – Center embedding
(2:19:42) – Learning a new language
(2:23:34) – Nature vs nurture
(2:30:10) – Culture and language
(2:44:38) – Universal language
(2:49:01) – Language translation
(2:52:16) – Animal communication