There are numerous reasons to learn a new language: work, love, or personal interest in the culture or people of a region. Research also shows that learning languages benefits the overall health of the brain.
Learning a new language is like exercising the brain. Just as muscles strengthen with physical training, neural pathways remodel when we learn a new language.
This is what neuroscientists mean when they state that speakers of multiple languages process information differently from those who speak only one. But what really happens in the brain when we learn a new language, and can this increase intelligence?
Language areas in the brain
Before answering these questions, it is necessary to understand some basic principles about how language involves many distinct parts of the brain.
Language processing involves two main circuits: one to perceive and produce sounds, which form the basis of language, and another to select the sounds that will be used, explains Arturo Hernandez, neuroscientist at the University of California in San Diego, in the United States.
“These circuits are reconnected as we learn and switch between languages. It’s about mapping sounds and deciding which language to operate in,” details Hernandez.
Sensory areas like the auditory cortex process speech sounds, and motor areas coordinate the muscles involved in speech, such as those that control the tongue, lips, and vocal cords. This holds true for all languages, but changes in “higher processing” areas of the brain are necessary to learn a new language.
For example, Broca’s area is primarily responsible for syntax – the way we structure sentences. It helps build grammatically correct sentences and understand their structures. This region is also fundamental for speech production and facilitates the motor control needed for word articulation.
Other regions of the brain, like Wernicke’s area, play an important role in vocabulary comprehension and word retrieval. It helps understand the meaning of each term and store them in long-term memory.
Cognitive skills such as memory, perception, problem-solving, and multitasking abilities are also enhanced.
According to the National Institutes of Health, a U.S. government agency, for example, bilingual children have a greater ability to perform more than one activity at a time than those who speak only one language. Additionally, knowing more than two languages can increase concentration and develop the brain’s ability to filter relevant information.
A study from the Department of Psychology at the University of Toronto also confirmed that when conversation occurs in a foreign language, the brain areas that activate are different from when speaking the native language. It’s as if the person is stimulating parts that can only be accessed in that way.
New neural connections are formed, and existing neural networks are reorganized when dedicating oneself to language. And how does this affect the person in practice? The brain is strengthened, and the ability to process information is boosted.
And have you heard of brain plasticity? This is the brain’s ability to adapt. As new learning tasks require exercising extensive neural networks and changes to switch from one language to another, it is also impacted.
Learning a new language physically changes the brain
A study measured the brain activity of Syrian refugees before, during, and after learning German. The researchers found that the participants’ brains rewired as they became more proficient in the language.
When the brain’s neuronal structures change physically, it is referred to as “brain restructuring.” This process – also known as neuroplasticity – is the foundation of learning. Learning a new language therefore requires the brain to find new ways to encode, store, and retrieve new linguistic information.
“Structurally, [learning a language] involves an increase in gray matter density in areas related to language processing and executive function,” explains Jennifer Wittmeyer, cognitive neuroscientist at Elizabethtown College, in Pennsylvania, in the United States.
Structural changes in the brain also alter how it functions, as they physically modify how neurons communicate. This so-called “neural plasticity” helps remember certain words faster, recognize new sounds more easily, and improve pronunciation by controlling the mouth muscles.
“Functionally, [language learning] improves connectivity between brain regions, enabling more efficient communication between networks involved in attention, memory, and cognitive control,” states Wittmeyer.
The advantages of learning languages in childhood
Studies indicate that we use the same brain networks for all languages, but the brain responds differently to our mother tongue. One study even found a decrease in brain activity when participants heard their native language. According to the researchers, this suggests that the first language learned is processed differently in the brain with minimal effort.
Research also suggests that learning new languages is much easier for young children than for adults.
This occurs because the brain in childhood is still developing and is therefore more adaptable to neural plasticity and learning. Unlike adults, children do not need to translate from their mother tongue, making it easier to learn sounds, grammar, and words.
“Early in childhood, there is not as much rigidity in the brain. Adult brains are already structured around a first language, so a second language must adapt to existing knowledge rather than developing independently, as it relies on previously established neural networks,” said Hernandez.
Prevention of diseases and recovery from injuries
Studies from the American Academy of Neurology, the North American professional association of neurologists, also showed that learning another language can delay Alzheimer’s symptoms.
A study by neuroscientists from the University of Tokyo, in Japan, published in the journal Frontiers in Behavioral Neuroscience, further indicated that changes in brain activation from this type of learning can aid recovery of lost language skills after a brain injury, such as a stroke.
According to a study published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, this can be attributed to the creation of new neural connections in the bilingual brain.
Additionally, the bilingual brain may have a different structure in some areas, according to authors Ramírez and Khul (2016), particularly in regions involved in executive functions and attention. This is because switching between two languages requires a high level of executive control and attention.
In summary, executive functions are a set of cognitive skills that enable a person to plan, organize, execute, and control behaviors and tasks without being dominated by impulses. These skills are essential for:
• problem-solving;
• decision-making;
• attention;
• working memory;
• inhibitory control;
• among other mental functions.
Additionally, the bilingual brain may have greater information processing capacity, especially for cognitive tasks. This is due to needing to handle two languages, thus requiring faster and more efficient learning.
Does learning a language make someone smarter?
According to some studies, multilingualism has a positive effect on cognitive skills like memory and problem-solving ability. But does this automatically mean polyglots are smarter?
Hard to say, but probably not, assesses Hernandez. “If someone speaks more than one language, their verbal repertoire expands. They have more words across languages, more items, and necessarily more concepts,” said Hernandez.
But it is unclear whether a larger vocabulary stems from greater cognitive reserve or simply more words stored in the brain’s memory banks.
To test whether polyglots are truly smarter, scientists would need to “find a task unrelated to language,” said Hernandez.
To date, there is no clear evidence that polyglots perform better on non-language-related tasks.
It is also uncertain whether changes in cognitive skills among multilingual speakers result from this learning or other factors, such as education or their upbringing environment.
What is a bilingual brain, after all?
In summary, a bilingual brain is one capable of fluently processing and understanding two distinct languages. This means the learner can comprehend, speak, read, and write in two languages without difficulty.
A bilingual brain also has the ability to switch easily between the two languages, suppressing interference from one when using the other. However, some people only consider someone bilingual if they are fluent in both languages.
In essence, the learner’s proficiency level can indeed alter certain brain characteristics. However, the level of knowledge does not change the fact that this brain differs from a monolingual one, i.e., a speaker of only one language.
Source: www.dw.com by Hussna Mohamed, blog.highfivebilingual.com.br & guiadoestudante.abril.com.br