By exploring a version of language that operates in a different modality than speech, you'll develop a wider and deeper appreciation of what language actually is. You'll unveil many myths about sign language, as you learn about its fascinating development and linguistic components. Our relatively recent understanding of neural mechanisms reveals that language is language, regardless of modality.

Did the human brain evolve a specialized "mental organ" designed for language? Or was language a product of cultural evolution? Examine our relationship to the human microbiome as an analogy. We aren't born with the bacteria in our microbiome, but our biology is extraordinarily receptive to them. And once combined, the relationship transforms us and our abilities, very similar to language.

Journey through a series of fascinating experiments developed to determine whether or not language can influence thought independent of culture. Perhaps not unexpectedly (and working with individuals from preverbal infants to adults), these experiments reveal that language and culture both influence thought, often working in tandem.

Explore the latest scientific research and theories related to the brain's ability to produce speech: one of the most complex of all human activities requiring the coordination of an estimated 100 muscles in the lungs, throat, jaw, tongue, and face. And learn why we need to hear our own speech in order to successfully produce it, even as adults.

Four experts (David Bellos, Michael Berry, Pankaj Mishra, Carol Padden) describe intriguing insights regarding the overlap of language and culture, from the global proliferation of sign languages, to the idea of language as an expression of identity.

Explore many of the evolutionary features that help babies prepare for successful communication, including the social cues that help them identify specific word meanings in an almost limitless sea of options. Consider the power of pupillary contagion as it activates the brain networks involved in perspective taking and the crucial social skill known as theory of mind.

Learn about the three basic principles of the brain as the foundation of all human learning: neural specialization, the connectome, and the brain's plasticity. Discover how the many developments in neuroimaging over the past 30 years (including ERP, MEG, and fMRI scans) have helped us better understand the relationships between brain mechanisms and behavior, both typical and atypical.

In 24 fascinating episodes, Dr. Spencer Kelly, Professor of Psychology and Neuroscience at Colgate University, takes you on a fascinating journey to explore questions about the origin of the human mind, what makes our communication so much different than other animals, whether or not language itself influences thought, and how babies learn their native language without direct teaching.

Only recently have scientists had the tools to examine the neural processing of language. The results reveal a brain that has evolved to process language as a survival mechanism. Learn about the brain's dual-stream pathways and their benefits, the latest research revealing that words activate practically every square inch of the brain's surface, and details still being debated today.

While there is no single gene for language or any other complex human system, specific aspects of the human genome and our biology create the perfect biological environment for the development of language. Explore the important relationship between the brain's Broca's and Wernicke's areas and the significance of the gene FOXP2. Could language be "a new machine built out of old parts"?