BBC 2/15/05: Key to intelligence questioned - Thought might not be dependent on language

[Guest guest]

Key to intelligence questioned

Thought might not be dependent on language,

according to new research published in the

Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

 

A UK team has shown that patients who have lost

the ability to understand grammar can still

complete hard sums.

 

This suggests mathematical reasoning can exist without language.

 

The study undermines the assumption that language

is the key quality that makes our thought

processes more advanced than those of other

animals.

 

" We are kicking against the claim that it is

language that allows you to do other high order

intellectual functions, " lead research Rosemary

Varley, from the University of Sheffield, told

the BBC News website.

 

Severe aphasia

 

The researchers made the discovery by studying

three patients who were suffering from severe

aphasia - they had lost the ability to

understand, or produce, grammatically correct

language.

 

For example, although they understood the words

" lion " , " hunted " and " man " , they could not tell

the difference between the sentences " The lion

hunted the man " and " The man hunted the lion " .

 

But when they were presented with sums like 52

minus 11 and 11 minus 52, which were structured

in a similar way, they had no problem.

 

" Our patients can clearly do those problems which

show the same reversibility, " said Dr Varley. " So

that shows they have a good insight into these

very abstract principles.

 

" Despite profound language deficits these guys

showed advanced cognitive abilities, which

indicates considerable autonomy between language

and thinking. "

 

The new findings contradict previous studies

which used brain imaging techniques to work out

how people process mathematics.

 

A French-led team found that calculations lit up

the left frontal lobe, an area of the brain known

to make associations with words. But Dr Varley is

not convinced by this research.

 

" The problem with functional brain imaging is you

don't really know what your subjects are doing

when they are in the scanner, " she said. " If you

give them a sum they might be reading the numbers

aloud in their head.

 

" But that is not to say that language is necessarily a part of mathematics. "

 

If Dr Varley is correct, it again raises the

question of what makes humans different.

 

According to many academics, people are much

cleverer than other animals because language

gives them a higher order of thought. But these

findings suggest cleverness and language might

not be as closely connected as once assumed.

 

Elizabeth Brannon, of Columbia University, US,

wrote in a commentary article: " A promising

avenue for further exploring this hypothesis is

to look for precursors of social reasoning and

mathematical syntax in nonhuman animals. "

 

 

Story from BBC NEWS:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/2/hi/science/nature/4265763.stm

 

Published: 2005/02/15 10:04:12 GMT

 

© BBC MMV

 

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