Interesting: In recent studies, MIT students were shown dots on a screen and asked to say how many there were. If they were allowed to count normal

Interesting: In recent studies, MIT students were shown dots on a screen and asked to say how many there were. If they were allowed to count normally, they did great. [...] if they did a verbal task when shown the dots—like repeating the words spoken in a news report—their counting fell apart. In other words, they needed their language skills to count. I find that external tapping destroys my ability to perform or enjoy listening to music. Something about the interaction of a rival rhythm shuts down the part of my brain that handles music. But most other singers I know don't have any issue with this, and I've wondered for a while what's wrong with me. An important aspect the article doesn't get into is idiomatic languages. English has a rich vocabulary. Some languages with weak vocabulary compensate for this by heavy linking into a story culture. It would be like if we had no word for beautiful, and instead expressed this by saying "your face launches a thousand ships". I'm told Chinese dialects are like this.