The Taboo Hardwire

Published November 13, 2007

By Nate Bradbury

People curse for different reasons. Expletives are a significant portion of basic communication in some relationships. For others, keeping a lid on swearing habits is an important component of their social training. Bad word-usage can be suppressed to a certain point but it is difficult to squelch entirely. Even the most restrained must have a hard time stifling a four-letter eruption when they stub their toe in a late-night, unlit trip to the bathroom.

Steven Pinker, a Canadian experimental psychologist, recently published a book, The Stuff of Thought, with a chapter-long investigation of “The Seven Words You Can’t Say On Television.” Dr. Pinker believes that “the same parts of the brain are involved when you bump your head and yell, ‘Oh Fuck!’ as when you step on a dog’s tail and get a very sudden howl.”

Neurological studies have yielded an elemental understanding of the brain’s relationship to curse words. Swearing is a basic level of communication. Experts theorize that the neurological mechanisms involved in swearing were central in the evolution of language and speech.

Neural pathway activation patterns are noticeably different for sex and taboo language than for most other forms of language-memory. Swearing (and other forms of emotion-laden speech) activates the brain’s right hemisphere and limbic system while other language requires use of the brain’s left hemisphere. Some of the most valuable research in this field has been performed on patients with traumatic brain injuries isolated in their right or their left hemisphere.

For example, patients with brain damage in their left hemisphere may lose the ability for normal speech and retain the ability to curse fluently. There is speculation among scientists that individuals with Tourette’s syndrome may have different neuronal connections that emphasize the right hemisphere/limbic pathways over the left hemispherical pathways that activate for “normal” speech.

Researchers agree that linguistically, neural pathways for cursing are strongly associated with emotions infused in speech. For instance, individuals with right frontal lobe damage exhibit reduced “non-linguistic” vocal patterns; they tend to have monotone speech patterns broken by inflectional distortions. This same neural mechanism mediates the brain’s ability to interpret melodies and sing.

A new study from Austria seems to add another component to the neurological complexities of swearing. Researchers have found a gland that helps mammals learn language. These so-called “swear glands” are indicators of an individual’s ability to learn and communicate in different languages. This work leads to the conclusion that fluent blaspheming might actually be a positive adaptation and not a sign of immorality.

Dr. Pinker believes that “cathartic swearing” (Jules and Vincent in Pulp Fiction) is comparable to the yowling in a cat fight or the screeching of a rat. He would argue that this linguistic skill is part of a primitive fight-or-flight response that evolved as tool of warning or intimidation. Pinker supports research that indicates strong emotional connections and reactions to cursing.

Denotations, the literal meanings of words, are concentrated in the left hemisphere while connotations, the implied meaning of words, pass through the amygdala (part of the limbic system) to add emotion to thoughts and memories. Physically, the limbic system is central to storing chunks of memory fused with emotion. There is a significant correlation between its healthy functioning and a person’s ability to say prayers, recall lyrics, or swear.
Taboo words tell the brain to pay attention. French Connection UK is an excellent example of this neural reflex. They sell otherwise unremarkable clothing in simple colors. However, a black shirt with F-C-U-K centered on the chest in white lettering is attention-grabbing. It is almost impossible to ignore due to its similarity to the spelling of the most common curse word F-U-C-K.

Profanity is a wide segment of American dialect. Linguists maintain that the number of words in a language used to describe something (for example, snow for the Inuits or sex for the English) illustrates its importance to society. Clearly, this theory shows that sex and fecal matter are of primary importance in American culture. Society continues to name and re-name words that are considered taboo.

Whichever side of the euphemism fence you come down on, swearing is hard-wired into your neural pathways.

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