Language and the Neural Construction of Reality

Our perception of reality is tied not only to the words we know but also to the patterns of activation in our brains, and these patterns vary across people based on individual experiences.

What we perceive as reality is essentially brain activity. Because our perceptions and thoughts are bound by patterns of neural activation, and because different languages activate different neural networks, those who speak multiple languages can cross these mental boundaries in ways that are nothing short of awe-inspiring. What we see or hear is influenced by which neurons are most likely to fire, and which neurons are most likely to fire depends on which prior neurons were activated by recent experiences.

When bilinguals switch languages, their networks of neural activation change as well and, with them, so do their perception and interpretation of reality, allowing them to move across multiple planes of neural co-activation – and hence, arguably, across multiple planes of existence.

--- Viorica Marian, The Power of Language: Multilingualism, Self and Society. 2023.