Neuropsychology and linguistic talent

Abstract We report on the unique case of a polyglot savant who is institutionalised because he is unable to look after himself, but who has knowledge of some fifteen to twenty languages. We provide details of his medical and psychometric background and then document his linguistic ability in detail. We argue that the case provides evidence for Fodor's modularity hypothesis (though with some quasimodular structure needing to be attributed to the central system) and for the linguistic distinction between a functional and a conceptual lexicon. We also report on the results of an MRI scan carried out on the subject. While these may reveal some abnormalities of the cerebellum, there is no differential cortical development which could underlie his linguistic ability. We conclude that, while pathological studies are making our understanding of the links between the neural and the linguistic ever clearer, we are still largely ignorant of the nature of those links in cases of normal or enhanced ability.

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