To the brain, Esperanto and Klingon appear the same as English or Mandarin

I guess it isn't that surprising. Both constructed languages and natural languages are man-made and do the same thing, it's just that they were developed by different processes.

Conlangs also tend to be based, consciously or subconsciously, on existing natural languages. As I understand, Esperanto is largely Romance language vocabulary with Slavic language grammar.

That explains why filk music "in the original klingon" is so effective; eg https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uOJoOtk7Scw&list=PLftMKM97Fe... [bIHar 'e' yImevQo' (Don't Stop Believin')]

Lagniappe: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gv0QIbGc8i8

I’m excited for the Lojban work:

> To further refine the features of language that activate the brain’s language network, Fedorenko’s lab is now planning to study how the brain responds to a conlang called Lojban, which was created by the Logical Language Group in the 1990s and was designed to prevent ambiguity of meanings and promote more efficient communication.