Math and language not linked

February 17, 2005

Those crazy wacky Brits–they claim they’ve proven that language and math abilities develop independently. The scientists studied people with damaged left hemispheres, which affected their language abilities. And even though the language impairment prevented them from speaking they could do mathematical calculations just fine.

Now it’s not what I would call a conclusive study–I mean, they only had 3 patients that they examined. But it does kinda gel with what we’ve all experienced. I’ve known people who could do arithmetic quite well once it was reduced to numbers, but the transition from a word problem to the numbers was the hard part. The separation of language and math.

The reason it’s a big deal potentially is that some scientists believe it was language that created the gateway to higher thought. Perhaps it was mathematics that created the gateway through which language was born.