Thursday, March 28, 2024

New Languages re-wire Brains of All Ages

A very interesting finding is that, contrary to previous studies, the brain is much more plastic than we thought," says Ping Li. "We can still see anatomical changes in the brain [in the elderly], which is very encouraging news for aging." Photo Credit: Flickr User:A Health Blog
A very interesting finding is that, contrary to previous studies, the brain is much more plastic than we thought,” says Ping Li. “We can still see anatomical changes in the brain [in the elderly], which is very encouraging news for aging.” Photo Credit: Flickr User:A Health Blog
Posted by Victoria Indivero-Penn State on November 12, 2014

Learning a new language can change the function and structure of your brain network, say researchers.

“Learning and practicing something, for instance a second language, strengthens the brain,” says Ping Li, professor of psychology, linguistics, and information sciences and technology at Penn State.

“Like physical exercise, the more you use specific areas of your brain, the more it grows and gets stronger.”

Li and colleagues studied 39 native English speakers’ brains over a six-week period as half of the participants learned Chinese vocabulary. Of the subjects learning the new vocabulary, those who were more successful in attaining the information showed a more connected brain network than both the less successful participants and those who did not learn the new vocabulary.

 

The researchers also found that the participants who were successful learners had a more connected network than the other participants even before learning took place. A better-integrated brain network is more flexible and efficient, making the task of learning a new language easier.

Li and colleagues report their results in the Journal of Neurolinguistics.

Connecting the Nodes

 

The efficiency of brain networks was defined by the researchers in terms of the strength and direction of connections, or edges, between brain regions of interest, or nodes. The stronger the edges going from one node to the next, the faster the nodes can work together, and the more efficient the network.

Participants each underwent two fMRI scans—one before the experiment began and one after—in order for the researchers to track neural changes. At the end of the study period, the researchers found that the brains of the successful learners had undergone functional changes—the brain network was better integrated.

Such changes, Li and colleagues suggested while reviewing a number of related studies, are consistent with anatomical changes that can occur in the brain as a result of learning a second language, no matter the age of the learner, as they reported in a recent issue of Cortex.

“A very interesting finding is that, contrary to previous studies, the brain is much more plastic than we thought,” says Li. “We can still see anatomical changes in the brain [in the elderly], which is very encouraging news for aging. And learning a new language can help lead to more graceful aging.”

Meanwhile, Li and colleagues have begun working on interactive ways to teach language using virtual 3D-like environments with situation-based learning to help the brain make some of those new connections more effectively.

Such studies hold the promise that the process of learning a second language as an adult can in fact lead to both behavioral and physical changes that may approximate the patterns of learning a language as a child.

The National Science Foundation supported this research.Source: Penn State

2 COMMENTS

  1. There is no doubt that learning other languages can bring many benefits to the learner, such as aid brain development and slow the brain aging process. However, the trouble is that so much of language teaching makes the process difficult with the end result that most students not only give up BUT never want to do it again because they think they are bad language learners!!!

    This will not help our brains!! So I think it much better that children and their parents look around and discover where to go to get great language learning experiences. If you are not sure what to look for here are some hallmarks: http://www.strategiesinlanguagelearning.com/best-language-learning/

  2. French was only class I ever received a failing grade for in high school — so you are right, I walked away convinced I did not have ability to learn languages.

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