大脑在语言方面有2大任务：读和语言理解。心理学家和脑研究专家讨论，这2大功能是否使用大脑的相同区域。新研究发现大脑的同一区域控制读和语言理解，我们不需要大脑的其它功能区域去理解语言。

听和说

格拉斯哥大学博士后Laura Menenti对大脑如何形成语句感兴趣，希望能够追踪语句生成（包括语法结构和语义）的全过程。她说，令人异常兴奋的是之前还没有人能成功开展这一研究，这就意味着我们将探索一个全新的研究领域。

作者利用核磁共振技术对读、听双方进行脑扫描。对脑活动扫描过程中，我们要求读方说出适当的语句。2个人分别标记为红或绿，然后按照颜色顺序读出相反语句：“男人勒杀女人”或“女人被男人勒杀”。（试验全部在荷兰开展）

研究人员能够发现3个不同的语言功能（理解语义、选取单词和组织句法）在大脑中发生的区域。在读、听过程中，参与者大脑的同一区域被这些功能激活。尽管一些研究提出听方为了理解语言也会默读，但是作者还没有发现大脑运动区参与听力。

推荐英文摘要

Shared Language: Overlap and Segregation of the Neuronal Infrastructure
for Speaking and Listening Revealed by Functional MRI

The involvement of the brain-speech production system in speech comprehension is the topic of much debate. While research focuses on whether motor areas are involved in listening or not, overlap could occur not only for primary sensory and motor processes, but also at linguistic levels (semantic, lexical and syntactic processes). Using fMRI adaptation in speech comprehension and production, we found that the brain areas involved in semantic, lexical, and syntactic processing are mostly the same for speaking and listening. Effects of primary processing load (indicative of sensory and motor processes) overlap in auditory cortex, and in left inferior frontal cortex, but not in motor cortex, where processing load affects the response only in speaking. These results indicate that the linguistic parts of the language system are used for both speaking and listening, but that the motor system does not seem to provide a crucial contribution to listening