People can still think even if their language abilities are destroyed by a stroke.

Judged as of 18 March 2024. True: neuroscience and neuropsychology evidence (for example, studies of people with severe or global aphasia after stroke, such as Fedorenko and Varley's work) shows that people whose language abilities are severely damaged or lost after a stroke can still do non-linguistic thinking, such as arithmetic, logical reasoning, theory of mind or planning. Mostly true: the evidence supports preserved thinking in severe aphasia, but language is rarely 'destroyed' entirely, so the wording overstates a detail. Mixed: the findings are conflicting about how much thought survives. Mostly false: thinking is only marginally preserved, or preserved in exceptional cases only, and the claim generalises a narrow finding. False: the evidence shows that loss of language after a stroke abolishes the ability to think.

Set before the research began.

1. E1 Language and thought are not the same thing: evidence from neuroimaging and neurological patients PubMed Central (NCBI/NLM) · 20 April 2016

   “Astonishingly, despite their near-total loss of language, these individuals are nonetheless able to add and subtract, solve logic problems, think about another person’s thoughts, appreciate music, and successfully navigate their environments.”

2. E2 Language and thought are not the same thing: evidence from neuroimaging and neurological patients PubMed Central (NCBI/NLM) · 20 April 2016

   “using the Wisconsin Card Sorting Task,102 Baldo et al.103 reported impairments in aphasic individuals, but not in patients with left-hemisphere damage but without aphasia.”

3. E3 You Don’t Need Words to Think Scientific American · 17 October 2024

   “But at the same time, people with aphasia, who are sometimes unable to utter a single word, can still engage in an array of cognitive tasks fundamental to thought.”

A 2016 peer-reviewed review (E1) reports that people with global aphasia can still do arithmetic, solve logic problems, reason about other people's thoughts and find their way around, despite a near-total loss of language. That supports the claim's main point. The same review (E2) notes a study (Baldo et al.) that found impairments on a card-sorting task, the Wisconsin Card Sorting Task, in aphasic individuals. Because the evidence describes a 'near-total' rather than complete loss of language, the word 'destroyed' slightly overstates the case, which fits the mostly-true criterion. E3 was published after the judgment date and only restates the same research line.