According to some linguists, language fundamentally affects the way we see and interpret the world around us. This phenomenon is known as the Sapir-Whorf hypothesis, and it was discussed by WNYC’s RadioLab show in their episode “Why Isn’t the Sky Blue.”
One of the ideas in this linguistic theory is that humans find it easier to identify different categories of color (green versus blue) once we’ve learned the words for them. A study published in PNAS shows that distinct regions of the brain are when pre-linguistic (non-speaking) infants are shown different colors. This indicates that color categories develop in the brain before language.
The researchers used near infrared spectroscopy to determine which areas of the infants’ brains were activated when they looked at either green or blue objects. They also showed infants two different shades of the same color. These experiments were repeated with adults to compare the prelinguistic infants’ brain activity to that of people who had mastered language.
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