Figure 6.

At birth, the infant brain already channels spoken language into specific circuits of the left hemisphere. When babies are scanned using functional MRI while listening to sentences in their mother tongue, a specific network of brain regions lights up—the same as in adults. The activity starts in the primary auditory area, then gradually extends to the temporal and frontal areas, in the same order as in the adult brain. These data refute the idea of an initially disorganized brain, a mere blank slate that awaits the imprint of its environment.