Speech uses both sides of brain

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Many scientists believe we only use one side of our brain for speech and language. Now, a new study from the US shows that as far as speech is concerned, we use both sides.

The study poses a significant challenge to current thinking about brain activity and could have important implications for developing treatment and rehabilitation to help people recover speech after stroke or injury, say the researchers from New York University (NYU) and NYU Langone Medical Center.

Senior author Bijan Pesaran, an associate professor in the Center for Neural Science at NYU, says:

"Our findings upend what has been universally accepted in the scientific community - that we use only one side of our brains for speech. In addition, now that we have a firmer understanding of how speech is generated, our work toward finding remedies for speech afflictions is much better informed."

As well as listening and speaking, speech involves language for constructing and understanding sentences. Thus most studies conclude that speech, like language, happens on one side of the brain. And these studies rely on indirect measurement of brain activity, explain the researchers.

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Speech uses both sides of brain