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Learning a new language can grow one’s perspective. Now scientists find that learning languages grows parts of the brain.
Scientists studied the brains of students in the Swedish Armed Forces Interpreter Academy, who are required to learn new languages at an alarmingly fast rate. Many must become fluent in Arabic, Russian and the Persian dialect Dari in just 13 months. The researchers compared the brains of these students to the brains of medical students who also have to learn a tremendous amount in a very short period of time, but without the focus on languages.
The brains of the language learners exhibited significant new growth in the hippocampus and in parts of the cerebral cortex. The medical students’ brains showed no observed growth. The study was in the journal NeuroImage.
Interestingly, the amount of growth in the brains of the linguists correlated with better skills—so those with better language skills also experienced more growth in the hippocampus and areas of the cerebral cortex that relate to language. For other students who had to work harder to improve their language skills, the scientists found greater growth in the motor area of the cerebral cortex. Where and how much change take place in the brain are linked to how easily one picks up a language. But it remains to be seen why this is.
—Christie Nicholson
[The above text is a transcript of this podcast.]
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7 Comments
Add CommentThis is a very good reason to improve my Italian right now!
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisNot so "new" study. Here is original article from half a year ago ;-) http://morsm.al/F26Jt
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisThat doctors never grow a brain is not big news ... There should be ome better way to measure this growth. Otherwise, it`s just bad science.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisDoes it count that I learned and successfully used to write major programming projects in a number of computer languages (Basic, 6502 assembly, C, C++, MFC, Java) since 1980 ?
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisAs a former language teacher, I can attest to the fact that foreign language students -at any age- are smart people with high social intelligence.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisthough the age counts a lot - as the sooner you speak in different tongues they better - foreign language students -even at a ripe old age- can delay the outbreak of Alzheimer's by a number of years it has been found.
Musical talents are often linguistically adept as well; and, interestingly enough, evolutionary science places the origin of language into the same pigeonhole as bird song!
As someone who has learned a second non-Romantic language, there is the belief among many of those I went to language school with that being musically inclined or having a music background greatly aids learning a new language.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisI would wonder if there were similar growth in the brain when students learn a new instrument & the musical pieces that go along with it.
Oh, it seems we had the very same point.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisI wonder if the reverse is true—do language students have increased affinity for music? Or is encouraging our children to learn music a more universal good, in that enhances future learning?
I have done a little music-mixing since leaving language school. I haven't tried to pick up an instrument, though it is on my bucket list.