Language acquisition: the development of domain-specific cognition

While reading is a recent invention in the history of humanity, several studies demonstrate that our brain contains a region that specializes in the processing of scripts. This finding is surprising because while we can exclude that the area evolved in connection to reading and writing (due to the recency of the invention of writing systems), the existence of domain-specific circuitry is often associated with skills that have a biological foundation. One proposal argues that the area evolved for other reasons, for instance, by accidentally mastering the processing of shapes, and that due to its properties it naturally develops into a “reading area” any time a child is trained to read during development. In this volume, I argue that an analogous process may take place for language as a whole. The biological foundation of language has been the object of an intense debate for more than five decades, and yet scholars disagree as to whether language should be considered a modular skill with a biological foundation or not. By providing converging evidence from language acquisition and cognitive neuroscience, I argue that language is a skill that partly relies on domain-specific circuitry, but that this circuitry did not necessarily emerge at the time language emerged and is not specialized for language at birth. Similarly to what happens for reading, thanks to their connectivity and their inherent properties, certain areas naturally develop into language areas when they are stimulated by language during early childhood, and quickly become domain-specific or develop a “preference” for language, a preference that will persist then throughout the life of the individual.