A study shows that learning new languages is a good way to keep the brain in shape and could encourage your brain to grow. A group of researchers had an almost unique opportunity to observe what happens to the brain when we learn a new language in a short period of time.
Young recruits at the Swedish Armed Forces Interpreter Academy pick up a new language very fast, 13 months to be exact.
Those with a flair for languages learn to speak fluently in Arabic, Russian or Dari within 13 months. From morning to evening, weekdays and weekends, the recruits study at a pace unlike on any other language course.
As a control group, researchers used medicine and cognitive science students at Umea University -- students who also study hard, but not languages. Both groups were given MRI scans before and after a three-month period of intensive study.
While the brain structure of the control group (not learning a new language) remained unchanged, specific parts of the brain of the language students grew, according to an Umea statement.
The parts that developed in size were the hippocampus, a deep-lying brain structure that is involved in learning new material and spatial navigation, and three areas in the cerebral cortex.
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Students with greater growth in the hippocampus and areas of the cerebral cortex related to language learning (superior temporal gyrus) had better language skills than the other students.
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The areas of the brain in which the changes take place are thus linked to how easy one finds it to learn a language and development varies according to performance.
Previous research from other groups has indicated that Alzheimer's disease has a later onset in bilingual or multilingual groups.
"Even if we cannot compare three months of intensive language study with a lifetime of being bilingual, there is a lot to suggest that learning languages is a good way to keep the brain in shape," said Martensson.
Source-IANS