To the brain, reading computer code is not the same as reading language: Neuroscientists find that interpreting code activates a general-purpose brain network, but not language-processing centers

Neuroscientists have found reading computer code does not rely on the regions of the brain involved in language processing. Instead, it activates the ‘multiple demand network,’ which is also recruited for complex cognitive tasks such as solving math problems or crossword puzzles.

Source: To the brain, reading computer code is not the same as reading language: Neuroscientists find that interpreting code activates a general-purpose brain network, but not language-processing centers

“Understanding computer code seems to be its own thing. It’s not the same as language, and it’s not the same as math and logic,” says Anna Ivanova, an MIT graduate student and the lead author of the study.