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WASHINGTON: While most people speak only one language or perhaps two, some are proficient in many. These people are...

While most people speak only one language or perhaps two, some are proficient in many. These people are called polyglots. And they are helping to provide insight into how the brain deals with language, the principal method of human communication.

<p>An MIT study of polyglots found the brain&rsquo;s language network responds more strongly when hearing languages a speaker is more proficient in &mdash; and much more weakly to the speaker&rsquo;s native language.</p>

While most people speak only one language or perhaps two, some are proficient in many. These people are called polyglots. And they are helping to provide insight into how the brain deals with language, the principal method of human communication. In a new study involving a group of polyglots, the brain activity of the participants was monitored using a method called functional magnetic resonance imaging as they listened to passages read in various languages.

While most people speak only one language or perhaps two, some are proficient in many. These people are called polyglots. And they are helping to provide insight into how the brain deals with language, the principal method of human communication.