A Theodore Talk Lecture Presented by Saima Malik-Moraleda
Language Processing in the Brain Across Diverse Languages and Speakers
Sunday, April 26th, 2026, via Zoom at 2:30 pm (CT)
In this Theodore Talk lecture, Saima Malik-Moraleda, who received her PhD in Neurobiology and Behavior from Harvard University, will present a more comprehensive view of how the brain handles language by examining both diverse languages and diverse speaker populations using precision fMRI. A staggering 7,000 languages are spoken and signed worldwide, and most people speak two or more. Yet, neuroscience research has largely focused on monolingual speakers of just a few dozen languages, leaving our understanding of the language system incomplete and potentially biased.
Neuroscientist Malik-Moraleda will examine whether the core properties of the left-lateralized language network — its anatomical organization, hemispheric bias, selectivity for linguistic input, and strong internal connectivity — generalize beyond English to the dozens of typologically diverse natural languages. She will also probe constructed languages (e.g., Esperanto, Klingon, Na’vi, High Valyrian, Dothraki) to ask what makes a language a ‘language’ and will present data from polyglots (speakers of five or more languages) to examine how multiple languages of varying proficiency engage the language network.
Finally, she will explore how language and executive function tasks are processed in monolingual versus bilingual speakers, highlighting both distinct and shared patterns. Taken together, these findings suggest that the brain’s language network recruits a remarkably robust activity and it’s so universally so that it varies systematically with proficiency rather than language identity.
Even if you can’t attend the live Theodore Talk lecture and discussion, as long as you register in advance you will receive a link to the Zoom recording of the entire event. All Theodore Talks have closed captioning enabled and this year we are offering Translated Captions as well. A list of future Theodore Talks can be found on the American Mensa National Events Calendar at: https://www.us.mensa.org/attend/calendar/, or by viewing the January issue of the Mensa Bulletin. Register for this presentation here.
Theodore Talks take place via Zoom on the fourth Sunday of each month at 2:30 p.m. CT.
Theodore Talk lectures are now being made possible by the generosity and financial support of American Mensa Life Member Dr. Mark Cohen. Thank you for your support of Theodore Talks lectures which are offered free to all Mensa members in an effort to provide Mensa members with more value to Mensa membership.
Questions? Contact Brad Lucht at >> [email protected].
