Saima Malik-Moraleda

I am a Postdoctoral Researcher at MIT, working with Evelina Fedorenko. My research asks how the brain processes language across the world’s remarkable linguistic diversity — in both its languages and its speakers. On the language side, I study typologically diverse languages, from well-studied Indo-European languages to under-represented indigenous languages. On the speaker side, I study bilinguals, multilinguals, polyglots, and heritage speakers. Using neuroimaging methods combined with cross-cultural fieldwork, I ask what is universal about language processing in the brain, what varies across languages and speakers, and how the different networks in our brains are able to support this striking diversity.

I completed my PhD in Speech and Hearing Bioscience and Technology at Harvard University, working with Evelina Fedorenko and Edward Gibson. Before that, I did a Master’s in the Cognitive Neuroscience of Language at the Basque Center on Cognition, Brain and Language in San Sebastián, Spain, and a B.Sc. in Psychology at the Autonomous University of Barcelona.

You can find my CV here.

Key Findings

The key properties of the language network — its topography, left-hemispheric lateralization, selectivity for language, and functional connectivity — are robust to cross-linguistic variation across 45 languages and 12 language families. Malik-Moraleda, Ayyash et al., 2022, Nature Neuroscience

Learning a second language can change the concepts in your native language: Tsimane'-Spanish bilinguals develop a blue/green distinction absent in monolingual Tsimane' speakers. Malik-Moraleda et al., 2023, Psychological Science

Constructed languages such as Esperanto, Klingon, and Na'vi are processed by the same brain mechanisms as natural languages, suggesting that what makes something a language is its capacity to express an open-ended range of meanings. Malik-Moraleda et al., 2025, PNAS