Yes, different parts of the brain process auditory and visual stimuli and other parts process language itself. This is what makes the brain so incredibly amazing because, in a split second, a person is able to hear, see, and understand things, even though none of it is seemingly connected. Both are individual and quite complex. I will not go into the in-depth neurobiology of this, but just as an overview, I will show how much is involved. (It must be noted that I'm an Aspie neuroscience major, so I'm almost obligated to drone on about this in some way or another... ;) ) The process of seeing requires both the eye and the brain to work together. When light hits the retina, a complex series of reactions occur, involving pigments and photons and proteins changing shape that allow a nerve impulse to be generated to the optic nerve, which is then sent to the brain. There are four lobes of the brain: frontal, occipital, parietal (pah-rye-ah-tal), and temporal. The occipital lobe is responsible for sight, the actual ability for your brain to register the picture that your eye is sending. However, there are many, many more things involved: color, depth, shape, and the complex process of perception. Different areas in the parietal and temporal lobes interpret these things. Without them, the image really wouldn't mean anything. The parietal lobe is what is responsible for visual-spatial abilities and for knowing where the parts of your body are in correlation to the world around you. The fact that you can tell where your left leg is when it's underneath a desk is all thanks to your parietal lobe. Parts of the parietal lobe help someone interpret the depth and proportions of an object. The temporal lobe is usually thought to be related to emotional responses, but it's also highly important with memory and understanding what something is. Parts of the temporal lobe help recognize an object. You may see an image of a cat, but your temporal lobe says, "Hey, that's a cat. I can tell by the ears, fur, and tail." Without this, the cat is just some meaningless picture. The temporal lobe also helps with movement, giving us the idea that we're perfectly still while in a moving vehicle, even though the laws of physics and inertia tell us otherwise. This is just the "simple" act of sight. Now on to hearing. :D When sound vibrations strike the ear, more complex neurobiological events occur, though not as biochemically complex as the eye. Once sound reaches an organ called the cochlea, a snail-shaped, fluid-filled organ deep within the ear, sound recognition begins. There's an apex and a base to the cochlea, and I believe that high-pitched sounds strike the base and low-pitched ones strike the apex, though this may be switched. Anyway, low-pitched ones take more time to hit the designated spot because they vibrate longer. These vibrations are taken by the auditory nerve to the parts of the brain that decipher pitch, rhythm, speed, etc. This has nothing to do with understanding what a person's saying, just the fact that something is coming out of their mouth, just as if you were hearing a foreign person speak a different language. You'd have no clue what they were saying, just that they were saying something. The process of hearing is much quicker than seeing. Even though seeing is incredibly fast, in biological terms, it's a "slow process." This has to do with the fact that hearing requires less of the complex biochemistry than seeing does. Okay, that being said, I can begin to explain language...
-GatsbyLuvr1920-