Close X
Thursday, October 31, 2024
ADVT 
Life

'Lost' languages get ingrained in brain

Darpan News Desk IANS, 18 Nov, 2014 11:19 AM
    Traces of the mother tongue that babies learn remain in the brain years later even if they totally stop using the language, as can happen in cases of international adoption, finds research.
     
    The study offers the first neural evidence that traces of the “lost” language remain in the brain.
     
    “The infant brain forms representations of language sounds, but we wanted to see whether the brain maintains these representations later in life even if the person is no longer exposed to the language,” said first author Lara Pierce from McGill University in Canada.
     
    The researchers analysed functional MRI scans of 48 girls between nine and 17-years old.
     
    One group was born and raised unilingual in a French-speaking family. The second group had Chinese-speaking children adopted as infants who later became unilingual French speaking with no conscious recollection of Chinese. The third group were fluently bilingual in Chinese and French.
     
    Scans were taken while the three groups listened to the same Chinese language sounds.
     
    “The brain activation pattern of the adopted Chinese who ‘lost’ or totally discontinued the language matched the one for those who continued speaking Chinese since birth,” Pierce said.
     
    The neural representations supporting this pattern could only have been acquired during the first months of life, Pierce explained.
     
    The study suggests that early-acquired information is not only maintained in the brain, but unconsciously influences brain processing for years, perhaps for life - potentially indicating a special status for information acquired during optimal periods of development. 
     
    The study appeared in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

    MORE Life ARTICLES

    Have you crossed the five stages of love?

    Have you crossed the five stages of love?
    Researchers have identified five stages of love, which would decide whether you would be able to cement the relationship or leave midway....

    Have you crossed the five stages of love?

    Online daters not looking for inter-racial love

    Online daters not looking for inter-racial love
    Online daters are not looking for love outside their cultural background, reveals a study, adding that women are significantly more likely than men to prefer...

    Online daters not looking for inter-racial love

    'FUNtervals' improve behaviour of kids

    'FUNtervals' improve behaviour of kids
    Four minutes of physical activity could improve behaviour in the classroom for primary school students, showed a research....

    'FUNtervals' improve behaviour of kids

    Did You Remember To Set Your Clocks Back An Hour? If You Did, You Got An Extra Hour Of Sleep

    Did You Remember To Set Your Clocks Back An Hour? If You Did, You Got An Extra Hour Of Sleep
    WASHINGTON — Most people in the United States and Canada are getting an extra hour of sleep this weekend, thanks to the annual shift back to standard time.

    Did You Remember To Set Your Clocks Back An Hour? If You Did, You Got An Extra Hour Of Sleep

    How you can make others behave in a group

    How you can make others behave in a group
    In group activities where some members tend to behave egoistically, it is possible for even one person to exert influence on others...

    How you can make others behave in a group

    Feeling of sadness lingers on longer

    Feeling of sadness lingers on longer
    "You need more time to mull over and cope with what happened to fully comprehend it," said lead authors Philippe Verduyn and...

    Feeling of sadness lingers on longer