Language Nutrition in Acquisition, Learning, and Attrition

Language is a nutrient for human brains: It develops brain structures (cortical areas and pathways, thalamus) in the infant brain during acquisition, and it helps those structures thrive in the mature brain. Language malnutrition in early childhood can set up the aging brain for premature attrition. The ‘Regression Hypothesis,’ originally tentatively proposed by Roman Jakobson, that attrition occurs in the mirror reverse order of acquisition is here amended: Regression effects can be observed for learned language, whereas acquired parts of language (e.g. syntax) are spared until the most severe stages of degeneration. The youngest and the oldest are most vulnerable to neglect, including linguistic neglect; thus, defining language as a nutrient has implications for human rights.