Most people in the world learn a second language at some point during their lives. A large number of them do this with great success, especially those who learned the second language at the same time as learning the first language or at an early stage of their development
According to new research conducted by the Montreal Neurological Institute in collaboration with the McGill University Neurological Center and the University of Oxford, the age at which children learn a second language has a significant impact on the structure of those children's brains as adults. Most people in the world learn a second language at some point during their lives. A large number of them do this with great success, especially those who learned the second language at the same time as learning the first language or at an early stage of their development.
According to the research, the brain develops in a similar way in those who learn one or two languages already in infancy. On the other hand, in those who learn a second language at a later stage, after they have already completely mastered their mother tongue, there is a structural change in the brain, especially in the lower part of the frontal lobe of the cerebral cortex (the inferior frontal cortex) - its left side becomes thicker while that the right side becomes thinner. The cerebral cortex consists of layers upon layers of nerve cells and has a significant part in various cognitive functions such as thought, language, awareness and memory.
According to the research, learning a second language after infancy causes the development of new nerve cells and the creation of new connections between nerve cells, as happens when learning complex motor skills such as juggling. The authors of the study hypothesize that the difficulty experienced by people trying to learn a second language later in life lies at the level of brain structure.
"As the second language is learned later in childhood, the changes in the lower part of the frontal lobe increase," explains Dr. Denise Klein, a researcher in the cognitive neurological research unit and one of the authors of an article on the subject published in the magazine 'Brain and Language'. The results of the research we conducted show, through the same structural changes in the brain, that the age at which we learn the second language is of critical importance in creating the basis for learning a language in the future."
Using software developed at the McGill University Neurological Center, the researchers studied MRI scans of 66 bilingual men and women and 22 monolingual men and women living in Montreal.
The article was translated by the Byron Company, which provides Translation services Professional in more than 40 languages.
To the announcement of the researchers on behalf of the Linguistic Society of America
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Welcome to our world and we hope that the visit will educate you in something.
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The 22 people speaking one language are the control group. The other 66 learned the second language at different times in their lives, and thus it is possible to compare those who learned it in infancy with those who learned it later, and to rate the depth of change compared to the control group according to the subject's age at the time of learning the second language.
The fact that the research was done in Montreal is not a reason to disqualify it. Montreal is home to people of extremely diverse ethnic origins.
Of course, other errors may have been made in the study as in any other study, but there is no indication of this in the article.
Is there any information about the consequences of "her left side [specifically in the lower part of the frontal lobe of the cerebral cortex] becoming thicker while the right side becomes thinner"?
It is better to know as many languages as possible, it always contributes to intelligence and also helps later in life.
Otherwise you will have to use translation serviceshttp://www.u-translation.com of a translation company in degree studies, therefore it is important to practice and learn as many languages as possible!
It's you
Tomer Shapira
The link points to another article...
Is it me, or do these researchers not know how to conduct scientific research?
"The researchers used software developed at the McGill University Neurological Center and studied MRI scans of 66 bilingual men and women and 22 monolingual men and women living in Montreal." - like the experimenters in both groups is not equal, there is no control group and the study was only done on people who live in Montreal, but it claims to be true for all people including babies (even though no test of babies was specified)!