While language is thought to be primarily a function of the brain’s left hemisphere, new research shows, it isn’t necessarily so. Whistled Turkish, a form of Turkish adapted into a series of whistles to allow for communication over greater distances, is processed equally in both brain hemispheres, researchers have found.
Whistled Turkish is the only language, known to date, to involve the right hemisphere of the brain, however there are other modern examples of whistled languages which may activate the same regions. The researchers plan on conducting further studies to examine the underlying brain processes in whistled-Turkish speakers.
Original research paper published in Current Biology on August 17, 2015.
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