Language may take on a variety of shapes. Whether you’re learning a spoken language, a computer language, a sign language, or something else, you can anticipate stretching your brain in novel ways. The best nootropics for verbal fluency and language can aid in this process.
Verbal fluency can be enhanced by the following nootropics: citicoline, uridine, organic lion’s mane mushroom extract, organic monnieri bacopa monnieri leaf extract, L-theanine, taurine, and N-acetyl L-tyrosine. They are also all contained in Maximum Mind in their most bioavailable forms. Read on to learn more about the best nootropics for verbal fluency.
This article looks at how the brain learns and processes language and how the best nootropics can help us communicate better in a wide range of languages.
“Patience, Persistence, and Perspiration Make an Unbeatable Combination for Success.”
— Napoleon Hill
What Are Nootropics?
“The only difference between the master and the novice is that the master has failed more times than the novice has tried.”
― Stephen McCranie
First things first, what are nootropics? Corneliu Giurgea, a Romanian neuroscientist, coined the term nootropic (pronounced new-tropic) in 1972. He believed that smart drugs should be invented and made widely available for the purpose of enhancing the general population’s brain health and increasing human intelligence.
According to Dr Giurgea’s findings, nootropics enhance cognition, memory, alertness, concentration, creativity, and attention. They became known as cognitive enhancers, substances that amplify the way the brain’s many cognitive functions operate and how we process information.
Simply put, cognitive enhancers (or nootropics or smart drugs) are prescription or off-the-counter drugs or supplements that enhance cognition. Some nootropics contribute to brain health while others can be quite dangerous.
Since Marco’s Grounds only works with safe and natural compounds in their purest forms, for most of our discussions we will restrain ourselves to natural nootropics that increase cognition safely.
What Is Language?
“You may encounter many defeats, but you must not be defeated.”
— Maya Angelou
Language is defined as a system of human communication that uses organized words or symbols to convey information from one person to another. More precisely, linguistic approaches are frequently unique to individual countries or cultures.
Language systems consist of the development, learning, and use of sophisticated communication strategies. Language is one such system, and linguistics is the scientific study of language.
Why Is Language Important?
“Ambition is the path to success. Persistence is the vehicle you arrive in.”
— Bill Bradley
Language is powerful. It enables us to communicate complex thoughts and ideas with a degree of depth, passion, and nuance that few other modes of communication can match.
The world’s population speaks around 7,000 languages. The world’s languages are highly diverse in a variety of ways. Languages can have distinct sounds, vocabulary, and, most significantly, structural differences.
While communication is universal, languages can be diametrically opposed.
The Kuuk Thaayorre is an Australian aboriginal tribe whose linguistic structure is quite distinct from that of most other languages. Rather than using the terms left or right, they refer to everything in terms of the four cardinal directions: north, south, east, and west. For example, in Paman (the Kuuk Thaayorre’s language), you might say, “There is a bee at your southeast leg.”
Rather than saying “hello,” the traditional greeting in Paman is “Which way are you going?” The response would be something along the lines of, “In the distance, I’m travelling south-southwest. And how about you?”
According to researchers in Trends in Cognitive Sciences, with this linguistic predisposition for direction, the Kuuk Thaayorre maintained a higher level of orientation than we previously believed humans were capable of. [1]
Language and the Brain
“Champions keep playing until they get it right.”
— Billy Jean King
There are several dialects of languages, and focusing just on verbal communication would be unjust and insufficient. The brain analyzes language differently depending on whether it is spoken, written, or another form of communication – such as sign language or music.
We’ll look at the most prevalent language systems in the world today, how they function in the brain, and how the best nootropics for verbal fluency can assist and encourage improved language and language learning abilities.
Auditory Cortex
The auditory cortex covers both hemispheres of the brain and is located in the higher temporal lobe, where it forms part of the superior temporal gyrus. While we are aware that the auditory cortex plays a critical role in speech and language, it is so complicated that our present knowledge of its specific mechanisms is equivocal at best.
The auditory cortex processes sound received by the ear via lower auditory functions. The auditory cortex does not require understandable sounds to respond; it simply responds to sound waves.
This is the brain centre responsible for verbal language processing in humans. It also carries signals to other parts of the cerebral cortex, including Broca’s Area, Wernicke’s Area, the Supramarginal Gyrus, and the Angular Gyrus.
Broca’s Area
Broca’s area is a region of the inferior frontal gyrus, typically situated in the left frontal lobe, involved in creating speech and language. However, the position of Broca’s region varies according to the dominant cerebral hemisphere.
Broca’s region damage can impair speech and language output but seldom impairs language understanding. When Broca’s region is injured, such as after a stroke, it might result in speech and language loss or disability.
However, language is not necessarily harmed by damage to Broca’s region. A study in Neurocase found that neuroplasticity enables the transfer of voice function and language creation to linked brain areas. [2]
Wernicke’s Area
Wernicke’s region is located in the posterior superior temporal gyrus and surrounds the auditory cortex in the lateral sulcus, typically placed in the left cerebral hemisphere.
Wernicke’s region, like Broca’s, is located in the right hemisphere of 5% of right-handed persons and 40% of left-handed people.
Wernicke’s area of expertise is language comprehension, both oral and written. This region is implicated in auditory word identification and is connected to Broca’s area via the uncinate fasciculus, according to FMRI imaging.
Language nootropics aid in maintaining cognitive function in the brain areas connected with speech and language.
Entrainment
Today’s experts feel that two things contribute to our ability to communicate vocally.
- The physical connection to the sound wave sent to your brain
- A standardized neural protocol that permits communication.
Researchers scanned people’s brains using FMRI equipment while telling or listening to real-life stories to reach this result.
Prior to the tale beginning, each participant’s activity in the main language centres increases and decreases, but the responses are very variable and non-synchronized. However, as soon as the narrative begins, something extraordinary occurs.
Suddenly, all individuals’ brain reactions synchronize and produce an up-and-down rhythm nearly identical across all listeners. This phenomenon is referred to as neuronal entrainment.
The frontal and parietal cortices become active during the narrative telling, which requires whole sentences and context to convey the message to listeners.
These higher-order cognitive capabilities are triggered only when listeners are immersed in a time-based information structure – in this case, a tale.
Similarly, the same effect occurs whether we listen to a set of instructions, a description of a technique, or a short notion or plan.
Hippocampus
Memory is necessary for understanding any type of language, and the hippocampus is the brain’s memory centre. The hippocampus is responsible for processing incoming short-term memory and converting it to long-term memory.
Whether you’re learning a new language or brushing up on an old one, the hippocampus is crucial for learning and retaining information, including that delivered in words and phrases, written or spoken.
Without the hippocampus, you may be able to comprehend language-based communication at the time, but you may struggle to store or recall that knowledge later.
Because the hippocampus is responsible for determining which information is significant and which is not, we may consider it cognitively responsible for “selective hearing” — when one hears the information but does not record it for later use.
Language Shapes the Way We Think
“If you can’t fly, then run, if you can’t run then walk if you can’t walk then crawl, but whatever you do you have to keep moving forward.”
— Martin Luther King, Jr.
Cognitive capacity varies significantly between languages. The Kuuk Thaayore possess exceptional spatial thinking abilities due to their language’s regular reinforcement of spatial awareness and orientation.
Additionally, other grammatical distinctions within language influence our sense of time, colors, numbers, genders, and even more ethereal concepts such as emotion and blame.
Space and Time
Language affects how individuals perceive space and time. Writing direction also affects this cognitive viewpoint. For instance, the English language is written and read from left to right horizontally.
Hebrew or Arabic script, on the other hand, is read from right to left. Additionally, the Chinese write characters in a top-to-bottom and left-to-right direction.
Native speakers of these languages are most likely to organize visual timelines similarly to how they write.
Time, like language, is relevant to the environment for the Kuuk Thaayorre, who organize timeframes differently based on their orientation, which is eastward.
According to the direction they are facing, they would organize graphic timelines differently. If they face west, time is ordered one way; if they face south, time is arranged otherwise.
A study found in Space, Time, and Number in the Brain asserts that language contributes to this radically altered perspective on time. [3]
Color
Additionally, languages influence how people experience the visual environment. For example, some languages have several terms for different tints and hues of colors, but others have only two – bright and dark. These linguistic differences in terms of shade have an immediate effect on the human brain.
In one study found in PNAS, researchers presented participants with a blue-colored screen. While researchers watched people’s brain activity, the screen gradually changed from light to dark blue.
The brains of people who use distinct terms for light and dark blue reacted with surprise when the hues changed from light to dark, whereas the brains of English speakers (who do not make this distinction) did not. [4]
These are really primitive perceptual differences. We make thousands of them every day, yet language has shaped even these little perceptual choices from early childhood.
Mathematics
Counting is a cognitive trick taught to children in English and other languages with number words; it is more of a linguistic than mathematical ability. We are introduced to the number list and how to use it.
However, other languages do not do this because they lack a vocabulary for precise numbers. Due to the absence of terms such as “five” or “six,” speakers of these languages are unable to count numerically and have difficulty with precise figures.
One study in Cognition showed that simply having number terms in the language opens up a universe of mathematical abilities and provides society with a significant stepping stone into a new cognitive domain. [5]
Grammatical Gender
Numerous languages make use of grammatical gender, in which each noun is assigned a gender, which is often masculine or feminine. Additionally, genders vary by language.
The sun is feminine in German, and the moon is masculine, yet the moon is feminine in Spanish, and the sun is male. This gender relationship does have an effect on how individuals think.
In German, a bridge is grammatically feminine, and German speakers are more prone to use feminine adjectives to describe them. However, because a bridge in Spanish is masculine, local speakers are more inclined to utilize male terms such as strong or lengthy.
This distinction in grammatical gender can have an effect on how individuals think about everything that can be named with a noun, due to this little linguistic distinction, as demonstrated in a study found in Language in Mind: Advances in the study of Language and Cognition. [6]
Reasoning
Languages also differ in their descriptions of occurrences. English speakers generally remark when someone breaks a glass accidentally, “She broke the glass accidentally” while Spanish speakers would tend to remark the following “The glass broke.”
A study found in Frontiers in Psychology verifies that due to this little linguistic distinction, English speakers are more likely to identify who shattered the glass. Still, Spanish speakers are more likely to identify it as an accident rather than who was at fault. [7]
This perceptual distinction means that individuals might view the same occurrence but recall it differently, which can have far-reaching repercussions. It has the potential to undermine the reliability of eyewitness evidence and has significant ramifications for issues like responsibility and punishment.
In Praise of Linguistic Diversity
Linguistic variety demonstrates the human mind’s adaptability and creativity. Not one cognitive universe was created by our brains, but around 7,000 with varying degrees of cognitive variation exist inside global languages.
Individuals who speak various languages think differently, yet this is irrelevant. It’s about how you think and how your language impacts your thinking.
This understanding may prompt you to inquire, “How did I come to think the way I do?” “How am I to believe otherwise?” Additionally, “What ideas do I wish to generate?”
Types of Language
“The secret of your success is determined by your daily agenda.”
— John C Maxwell
Spoken Language
Spoken language communicates through various characteristics other than words, including tone of voice, loudness, pitch, and rhythmic modulation. Even if we are not competent in the spoken language, we can typically distinguish between an inquiry and a warning or an enthusiastic remark and an angry one.
According to neuroscientist David Levin, spoken language evolved from rudimentary yet very successful combinations of rhythm, pitch, and dynamics utilized by early humans to communicate. Numerous spoken languages and speech patterns employ basic musical intervals often.
A segment from Music Therapy: Understanding the Science of Sound explains that while details differ significantly between spoken languages, auditory signals such as speech patterns, voice tone, pitch progressions, and dynamics are undoubtedly comparable among present and ancient languages. [8]
Written Language
While spoken language has been utilized for thousands of years, for most of recorded history in Western civilization, reading and writing were restricted to the privileged few.
While illiteracy is not as ubiquitous as it was a few centuries ago, it is still more pervasive than the majority of people believe, especially in wealthy countries like the United States or European countries.
Writing is an acquired talent that may provide us with the knowledge we would not have had otherwise. Writing is a creative endeavor, a means of self-improvement, a necessary means of communication in the workplace, and even a vocation in and of itself.
Numerous nootropics for writing also function well as linguistic nootropics.
Using nootropics to increase your writing and language abilities, such as writing and reading effectively, can improve your quality of life.
The language we use to communicate is shifting due to the proliferation of text messaging, social networking, and other text-based communication tools.
We have effectively created a new multilingual language for communication via technical gadgets known as SMS (short message service).
This language communicates simply by using acronyms, pictograms, and emoticons to indicate thoughts, ideas, and feelings.
It’s almost as if contemporary culture is rediscovering the importance of historical pictographic language types such as Egyptian hieroglyphs or even early cave paintings – one of our forefathers’ first forms of written communication.
Computer Programming (Coding)
Language is a creative endeavor, and we are constantly creating new languages. Computer programming, or coding, is a new language designed exclusively for communicating with machines and software programs that exhibit artificial intelligence.
While many consider coding to be a mathematical language, research indicates that computer programming engages language centers in the brain more than logical, mathematical areas.
Numerous programmers want a flow state in order to develop and comprehend code more quickly and efficiently. The best nootropics for flow states can aid in the development of several skills required for productive coding, including attention, motivation, focus, and mood.
Music
Music is a language in and of itself. The absence of words in music communicates through aural signals such as pitch, tone, rhythm, and pace. The human brain uses the auditory cortex, temporal lobes, and prefrontal cortex to analyze music.
Music is sometimes said to be a universal language due to its capacity to elicit the same emotional response in persons with varying cultural and linguistic origins. While spoken language uses tone, dynamics, and rhythm to express meaning, music exclusively uses these more right-brained cognitive interpretations to transmit ideas, stimulate memory, and impact cognition.
Consistent, real-world evidence demonstrates that music can be highly successful at improving certain critical cognitive processes in patients with neurological abnormalities such as stroke, Alzheimer’s disease, and Parkinson’s disease. This insight has resulted in a paradigm shift in how health systems approach cognitive problems and brain damage.
Numerous nootropics for language are also nootropics for music, and stacks with multiple approaches can boost general brain health more efficiently than single supplements.
Sign Language
While sign language avoids the auditory cortex, it stimulates Broca’s and Wernicke’s areas the same way as the spoken and written language. Signers with Wernicke’s area injury have difficulties comprehending linguistic signals, but those with Broca’s area damage have difficulty making them.
Hearing-impaired individuals who see sign language have more activity in occipitotemporal areas specialized for visual processing than hearing individuals presented with a spoken model.
However, research found in The Journal of Deaf Studies and Deaf Education suggests that the distinctions between spoken and sign language are mostly in processing modes rather than grammatical features. [9]
Maximum Mind: The Best Nootropics for Verbal Fluency and Language
“Good ideas come from bad ideas, but only if there are enough of them.”
— Seth Godin
Citicoline
Citicoline has been shown to aid in language acquisition and retention by increasing acetylcholine levels. It is one of the best nootropics for verbal fluency and is the nootropic foundation that provides CDP choline, a precursor of the neurotransmitter acetylcholine (ACh).
Acetylcholine promotes communication between brain cells, memory, and general brain health.
According to research found in The American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, increasing choline consumption improves verbal and visual memory and has a beneficial effect on learning. [10]
Numerous nootropic users regard CDP choline as a necessary component of every sound nootropic supplementation strategy. Choline is a safe, effective, and very well-tolerated memory enhancer and brain defender on its own, but it can act as a potentiator when taken with other nootropic substances.
Note: there’s an effective dose of citicoline as Cognizin® in each dose of Maximum Mind.
Read more about citicoline on the Marco’s Grounds Deep Dive and about the benefits of citicoline for brain power here.
Uridine
The liver synthesizes dietary uridine, which is discharged in the blood as uridine monophosphate.
Numerous foods are fortified with dietary uridine. However, because the bulk of uridine consumed through food is absorbed during the digestive process, supplementation may be necessary to obtain many remarkable effects and benefits—particularly those connected to cognition.
Uridine supplementation has been shown to easily cross the blood-brain barrier. In the brain, uridine is converted to CDP choline. From CDP, choline, phosphatidylcholine, and acetylcholine are subsequently produced.
The more uridine in the brain, the more CDP choline is generated, effectively protecting and reinforcing nascent synapses. Uridine also plays a role in developing new synapses by encouraging the growth of projections or branches of brain cells termed neurites, which are crucial for neural communication.
In Neuroscience studies, supplementing uridine dramatically increased the number of neurites per cell and neurite branching [11]. Increased neurite outgrowth and branching are strongly associated with improved cognition.
According to a published paper in Nutrition reviews, uridine’s combined actions promote and enhance neuroplasticity, or the brain’s potential to reconstruct and alter in response to learning and brain training [12].
As a result of the many mentioned benefits of uridine, it is one of the best nootropics for verbal fluency. By aiding in the regeneration of neurites, which is the main process of growing neurons that eventually develop into axons or dendrites. Uridine can significantly increase brainpower and, in turn, increase verbal fluency.
Note: there’s an effective dose of uridine at 99% purity in each dose of Maximum Mind.
Read more about uridine on the Marco’s Grounds Deep Dive or dig deeper into the benefits of uridine here.
Organic Lion’s Mane Mushroom Extract
The lion’s mane mushroom is well-known for its ability to support the NGF (nerve growth factor). NGF, in turn, promotes brain plasticity — the process by which neurons in the brain connect and rearrange in response to new information.
There are a number of the best nootropics for verbal fluency, and lion’s mane is no exception. Lion’s mane may contribute to the healthy brain plasticity required for language learning by promoting NGF.
In this aspect, lion’s mane stacks particularly well with citicoline and alpha GPC; combined, these three nootropics provide the raw ingredients, signaling components, and energy necessary to develop new brain circuits in response to a new language.
Note: there’s an effective dose of organic lion’s mane full-spectrum fruiting body at 40% minimum beta-glucans, in each dose of Maximum Mind.
Read more about lion’s mane on the Marco’s Grounds Deep Dive or find more about the benefits of lion’s mane here.
Organic Monnieri Bacopa Monnieri Leaf Extract
Since its discovery in ancient India for millennia, people have used bacopa monnieri to increase memory, learning, mood, studying, and brain health.
Since languages are growing and certain languages are quite broad in scope and application, memory and learning are critical for developing linguistic competence and enhancing communication abilities.
Bacopa may aid in memory retention by “decreasing the pace of losing freshly learned knowledge,” according to studies in Neuropsychopharmacology. [13]
Bacopa promotes language acquisition and communication by increasing the brain’s serotonin, acetylcholine, and GABA levels. Serotonin is involved in the consolidation of memories, whereas GABA affects the neuronal transmission, memory formation, and learning.
Bacopa from Maximum Mind includes nine active bacosides that may help improve memory and visual information processing for improved reading comprehension abilities and this is why bacopa is one of the best nootropics for verbal fluency.
Note: there’s an effective dose of organic bacopa monnieri leaf extract at 50% minimum bacosides, in each dose of Maximum Mind.
Read more on bacopa on the Marco’s Grounds Deep Dive or find out more about the benefits of bacopa here.
L-Theanine
While L-theanine does not directly affect language acquisition, it is also one of the best nootropics for verbal fluency. It does have several amazing effects that can help improve language learning and comprehension, as well as interpersonal communication skills.
According to a study conducted at John Hopkins University, L-theanine enhances theta brain waves, aiding memory and cognitive enhancement. Additionally, it has been shown to enhance learning, memory, and attention by creating an alpha brainwave state associated with calm attentiveness. Each of these cognitive skills contributes to the enhancement of language acquisition and communication.
Note: there’s an effective dose of L-theanine from organic green tea leaf extract in each dose of Maximum Mind.
Read more about L-theanine on the Marco’s Grounds Deep Dive or find out the best caffeine and L-theanine combination here.
N-Acetyl L-Tyrosine
For language learning and comprehension, it is critical to have a strong memory and attention. N-acetyl L-tyrosine (NALT) has demonstrated encouraging outcomes in clinical research to improve cognitive function and motivation in general, specifically, working memory.
L-tyrosine is an amino acid that maintains normal brain chemistry and mental performance under stressful settings. Consider learning a new language and then being forced to communicate in that language as a beginner. Tyrosine may aid in the processing of language in such high-stress situations and this is why it is one of the best nootropics for verbal fluency.
Note: there’s an effective dose of L-tyrosine as N-acetyl L-tyrosine in in each dose of Maximum Mind.
Read more about tyrosine on the Marco’s Grounds Deep Dive or dig deeper into the benefits of tyrosine here.
Taurine
Another nootropic linked to memory, taurine is an amino acid responsible for various chemical reactions in the human body.
As taurine protects the membrane of neurons, it improves the stability of the cells. When neurons are not disrupted due to stress, they have a higher capacity for memory retention. Hence, you will feel more active and present after taking this taurine.
Supplementing with taurine can improve short-term memory by improving neurotransmission efficiency. It will also improve long-term memory by helping in maintaining neural integrity [14].
Taurine has many benefits ranging from being a permeation enhancer by increasing the rate of absorption of other compounds to being a powerful antioxidant. Yet, the main benefit of taurine as one of the best nootropics for verbal fluency relies on its ability to boost memory.
Note: there’s an effective dose of taurine in its free form at 99% purity in each dose of Maximum Mind.
Read more about taurine on the Marco’s Grounds Deep Dive or dig deeper into the benefits of taurine here.
Conclusion
“There are secret opportunities hidden inside every failure.”
— Sophia Amoruso
In conclusion, we have learned about language, types of languages, and most importantly, the best nootropics for verbal fluency and language.
Maximum Mind language nootropics promotes brain plasticity, memory storage, recall, and critical thinking, all of which contribute to linguistic abilities. Maximum Mind contains the purest nootropics that promote general brain health and specifically improve language-specific brain areas, enabling you to speak more effectively and efficiently digest incoming information.
Whether you’re a college student studying French, an IT professional looking to improve the elegance of your code, or a retiree learning a new musical instrument for enjoyment, language competence may help you achieve your goal more easily and be your best self.
The correct language nootropics may assist you in various ways — by enhancing plasticity, memory, recall, learning, and mental processing — all of which will aid you in communicating clearly and effectively in any language of choice.
Why not benefit from the best nootropics for verbal fluency in their purest form along with other clinically studied compounds for increasing brain performance and health with Maximum Mind?
Literature
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- Boroditsky, L. “How Languages Construct Time. In Dehaene and Brannon” (Eds.,) Space, time and number in the brain: Searching for the foundations of mathematical thought. 2011. Elsevier.
- Guillaume Thierry, Panos Athanasopoulos, Alison Wiggett, Benjamin Dering and Jan-Rouke Kuipers. “Unconscious effects of language-specific terminology on preattentive color perception.” PNAS March 17, 2009. 106 (11) 4567-4570.
- Frank MC, Everett DL, Fedorenko E, Gibson E. Number as a cognitive technology: evidence from Pirahã language and cognition. Cognition. 2008 Sep;108(3):819-24.
- Boroditsky, L., Schmidt, L., & Phillips, W. “Sex, Syntax, and Semantics.” In Gentner & Goldin-Meadow (Eds.,) Language in Mind: Advances in the study of Language and Cognition. 2003.
- Fausey, C., Long, B., Inamori, A., & Boroditsky, L. “Constructing agency: the role of language. Frontiers in Psychology.” 2010.
- Fauble L. Music Therapy: Understanding the Science of Sound. It’s the Write Way. 2016. ASIN: B01FXDDZL4
- Campbell R, et al. Sign Language And The Brain: A Review. The Journal of Deaf Studies and Deaf Education, Volume 13, Issue 1, 1 January 2008, Pages 3–20.
- Poly C, et al. The relation of dietary choline to cognitive performance and white-matter hyperintensity in the Framingham Offspring Cohort. Am J Clin Nutr. 2011 Dec; 94(6): 1584–1591.
- Pooler, A. M., Guez, D. H., Benedictus, R., & Wurtman, R. J. (2005). Uridine enhances neurite outgrowth in nerve growth factor-differentiated pheochromocytoma cells. Neuroscience, 134(1), 207-214.
- Wurtman, R. J., Cansev, M., Sakamoto, T., & Ulus, I. (2010). Nutritional modifiers of aging brain function: use of uridine and other phosphatide precursors to increase the formation of brain synapses. Nutrition reviews, 68(suppl_2), S88-S101.
- Roodenrys S, et al. Chronic effects of Brahmi (Bacopa Monnieri) on human memory. Neuropsychopharmacology. 2002 Aug;27(2):279-81.
- Idrissi, A. E. (2019). Taurine regulation of neuroendocrine function. Taurine 11, 977-985.