In an unprecedented new study in the journal Cell Reports, researchers have shown neurotransmitters in the human brain are released during the processing of the emotional content of language, providing new insights into how people interpret the significance of words.
The work, conducted by an international team led by Virginia Tech scientists, offers deeper understanding into how language influences human choices and mental health.
Spearheaded by computational neuroscientist Read Montague, professor of the Fralin Biomedical Research Institute at VTC and director of the institute’s Center for Human Neuroscience Research, the study represents a first-of-its-kind exploration of how neurotransmitters process the emotional content of language — a uniquely human function.
The study bridges the biological and the symbolic, linking neural processes that likely have evolved for survival in a vast array of species over the eons to the richness of human communication and emotion.
“The common belief about brain chemicals, like dopamine and serotonin, is that they send out signals related to the positive or negative value of experiences,” said Montague, co-corresponding and co-senior author of the study. “Our findings suggest that these chemicals are released in specific areas of the brain when we process the emotional meaning of words. More broadly, our research supports the idea that the brain systems that evolved to help us react to good or bad things in our environment might also play a role in how we process words, which are just as important for our survival.”
The researchers are the first to simultaneously measure dopamine, serotonin, and norepinephrine release in humans in the context of the complex brain dynamics behind how people interpret and respond to language.
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