Access
This article is part of Nature's premium content.
Published online 3 March 2008 | Nature | doi:10.1038/news.2008.638
News
Perception coloured by language
Babies see colour without interference from the brain's language centre.
Babies and adults use opposite sides of their brains to process colours. And the switch is due to the influence of language, a study suggests.
To read this story in full you will need to login or make a payment (see right).
Comments
Reader comments are usually moderated after posting. If you find something offensive or inappropriate, you can speed this process by clicking 'Report this comment' (or, if that doesn't work for you, email redesign@nature.com). For more controversial topics, we reserve the right to moderate before comments are published.
Can it be that perception gradually is categorized by language rather than coloured by language? If you wire up an artist in the throes of painting, will s/he be firing primarily in the right or left brain? In other words, do babies perceive wholistically then progressively categorize those perceptions with language so that with maturation of a developmental bridge one can manipulate perceptions to e.g. "paint" (left side), or e.g. "describe a painting's colour" (right side)?