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Language is a means of communicating complex ideas or feelings. Although human language can be verbal or non-verbal, it is more complex than any form of animal communication and reflects the culture of its speakers.
It is unknown how cortical stimulation identifies brain regions critical to speech and language when they depend upon broader brain networks. Here the authors show that these critical areas function as connectors between modules in the language network.
Early environmental factors, like disadvantage, are associated with neurocognitive development. Here, the authors find that neonates and toddlers from economically disadvantaged backgrounds show accelerated brain development, with implications for language abilities in toddlerhood.
Regev, Casto et al. examine the temporal response patterns of neural populations in the language network and discover that these populations process information over different timescales.
Large language models (LLMs) are becoming less overtly racist, but respond negatively to text in African American English. Such ‘covert’ racism could harm speakers of this dialect when LLMs are used for decision-making.