E.G. (a pseudonym) is an accomplished woman in her early 60s: She is a college graduate and has an advanced professional degree. She has a stellar vocabulary — in the 98th percentile, according to tests — and has mastered a foreign language (Russian) to the point that she sometimes dreams in it. She also has, likely since birth, been missing her left temporal lobe, a part of the brain known to be critical for language. In 2016, E.G. contacted McGovern Institute for Brain Research Investigator Evelina Fedorenko, who studies the…
