How Do our brains process speech?

Speech and Language are intricate processes in the brain. 

There are so many parts of your body and brain that are involved in language, your ears, mouth, and two other areas Wernicke’s Area (used for understanding) and Broca’s Area (for production).

Have you ever played the game telephone? You say one word to the person next to you and they pass it on to the person next and the next person and the next. By the end of the line the word or phrase can be so different from the initial word! 

There are many factors that can influence how people hear sounds, from their background, development, their first language, and more.

Let’s look at a word’s path in the brain to help you understand the language process. These are not the only parts of the brain involved but the larger areas: 

Simplified Process of Speech/Language in the Brain

1. The word or sentence is heard in the ear and travels through all that mechanical process (like the eardrum, the cochlea, the auditory nerve) to translate it into electrical impulses for the brain to read. 
2. Those electrical impulses travel to Wernicke’s Area (understanding part) where the brain processes what the sounds are and their meaning (ish). 
3. Wernicke’s Area (understanding) sends another impulse along to Broca’s Area (production area) where the brain starts processing how to replicate or respond to the word or sentence. 
4. Broca’s Area (production) sends an electrical impulse to the motor cortex, specifically the vocal cords, mouth, jaw, tongue, and throat muscles with directions on how to use those muscles to create the sounds for the word or sentence. 
5. Those muscles (mouth, tongue, jaw) replicate the sound and it’s passed on to the next ear!

Again this description is simplified compared to the actual process and there are specific areas within each cortex that are responsible for specific tasks, but this overview gives you a better understanding.

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Wernicke’s Area

Wernicke’s Area is like the dictionary of your brain. This area takes all those sounds your ears heard and turns them into something that you can understand. It’s like translating a foreign language into English. 

I always used a word association to help me remember. In German, the word for understanding is verstehen (fur-stayh-en) and sounds similar to the start of Wernicke. Carl Wernicke is also German, so it stuck for me.

Broca’s Area 

Broca’s area is the part of the brain that produces speech. It takes the information from Wernicke’s Area (the dictionary) and prepares your response and sends that information to your muscles to physically say the words. 

Following the word association, Broca starts with a br and produce starts with a pr. I know it’s a stretch but if you can remember one of the areas (either Broca’s or Wernicke’s) then you can know the other. 

Language Development 

When you’re little and learning your first language, this process takes longer compared to adults.

The brain is not only learning how to talk, process language, walk and more, but also how to learn. The innate ability to learn is something we are born with, but our brain still needs exposure to language to learn how to process it.

Adults learning a second language might struggle not having the ease of learning anymore but they have the skills of years to apply to learning as well. 

Language Processing and Second Language Acquisition

The complexity of this process in the brain is amazing to think about in regards to one language, let alone more than one!

The brain process is the same regardless of processing your  first language or third language. The speed might change though, depending on your comfort level with each language. 

For example, my first language is English so my processing speed for that language is the fastest. I also speak French and German, learned in school, but my German is better so my processing speed is faster in German than French but neither is as fast as my English.

My husband is bilingual from birth in English and German, so his processing speed for both languages is the same. 

Conclusion

The process of speech and language in the brain is complex and fascinating. The areas of the brain involved are diverse, and second language processing can be very similar to native language processing. This blog post has outlined some of the key information on language and speech in the brain, and I hope that it has provided a glimpse into what makes this science so unique and captivating.

Reference:

Friederici, A. D. (2011). The brain basis of language processing: from structure to function. Physiological reviews, 91(4), 1357-1392.