This essay discusses the relationship between thought and language, a long lasting theoretical problem, revised now with more emphasis, adding other elements to the considered relationship: a) the cultural context - as an essential factor not as a mere background, and b) the brain studies. A theoretical review of the concepts of metalanguage and metalinguistic activity was conducted, relating them to the studies of aphasia. It is argued that this cyclical reanalysis is due to the contribution of methodological and theoretical findings. At the present time the renewal has derived from a new way of considering the relationship of culture and life experiences in a social group upon individuals cognition, at the light of the results of several studies about brain changing according to experience, which were impossible in the past due to lack of proper methods and techniques. The theme is not trivial, having been stressed by disciplinary divisions. The discussion main point concerns to the biological basis of a possible difference, at the beginning of the process of knowledge construction. This discussion is of immediate interest and, being considered or not, the relationship: cognition/language/cultural context/brain (body) is crucial to Cognitive Sciences.
cognition; language; metalanguage; metalinguistic activity; aphasia