Brain Sides and New Language Learning | Science

00:03:07
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0dj0at_mccI

Résumé

TLDRThe video highlights the difficulties adults face when learning a new language, focusing on the brain's role in comprehension and speech production. While comprehension can often be achieved with less precision, speaking fluently requires more effort due to the brain's hemispheric specialization. Research by Shipra Guranandan from the Basque Center on Cognition, Brain, and Language explores how different tasks activate brain hemispheres during language learning. The study finds that speaking is primarily linked to the left hemisphere, owing to its specialized speech motor circuits, whereas reading and listening comprehension are more bilateral and variable, especially in advanced learners. The right hemisphere can aid language tasks if the left is compromised, indicating flexibility. Ultimately, learning a new language is challenging but feasible regardless of one’s age, as brain plasticity remains intact.

A retenir

  • 🧠 Language learning is challenging, especially speaking.
  • 🗣️ Speaking activates the brain's left hemisphere.
  • 📖 Reading and listening use both brain hemispheres variably.
  • 🧩 The brain's right hemisphere can aid in language learning if needed.
  • 🔄 Comprehension uses auditory and visual systems bilaterally.
  • 🔍 Research involved tasks like reading, listening, and speaking.
  • ⚙️ The left hemisphere is crucial for speech due to motor circuits.
  • 🌍 Language skills are achievable regardless of age.
  • 📚 Advanced learners show more hemispheric activation switch.
  • 🔬 Study published in the Journal of Neuroscience.

Chronologie

  • 00:00:00 - 00:03:07

    Neuroscientist Shipra Guranandan investigates why language comprehension often precedes speech production during adult language learning. It is suggested that the left hemisphere of the brain is primarily responsible for language, but the right hemisphere can assume these tasks if needed, indicating language isn't confined to one side. Her study involved Spanish speakers learning Basque or English, revealing that speech activates the left hemisphere, whereas reading and listening show varying activation across brain hemispheres as language proficiency increases. Comprehension may involve both hemispheres because it engages the bilateral auditory and visual systems. The research affirms that challenges in language learning are normal and unrelated to brain plasticity.

Carte mentale

Mind Map

Questions fréquemment posées

  • What is the main difficulty adults face when learning a new language?

    Adults often struggle more with speaking fluently and reproducing foreign sounds than with comprehension.

  • Which part of the brain is essential for language?

    The left hemisphere of the brain is generally essential for language.

  • Can the brain's right hemisphere take over language tasks?

    Yes, if the left hemisphere is injured, the right hemisphere can take over language tasks.

  • How do comprehension and speech processing differ in the brain?

    Speech primarily activates the left hemisphere, while comprehension uses both hemispheres more variably.

  • Does language learning ability decline with age due to brain plasticity?

    No, language learning is challenging, but adults still have the brain capacity to learn new languages.

  • What activities did the researchers use to study the brain during language learning?

    They used tasks involving reading, listening, and speaking in a scanner to observe hemisphere activation.

  • Which aspects of language learning showed the most hemispheric activation switch?

    Reading showed the most hemispheric activation switch from native to new languages.

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  • 00:00:00
    [Applause]
  • 00:00:05
    anyone who's tried to learn a new
  • 00:00:07
    language
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    as an adult knows how hard it can be and
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    usually
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    the ability to comprehend someone else
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    comes before the capacity for speaking
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    the new tongue
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    when you're listening you can kind of
  • 00:00:18
    gloss over the details
  • 00:00:20
    so you may not need to understand every
  • 00:00:22
    single syllable
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    every single word perfectly cognitive
  • 00:00:26
    neuroscientist
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    shipra guranandan of the basque center
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    on cognition
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    brain and language but actually speaking
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    a new language fluently
  • 00:00:35
    takes much more work adults are not
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    quite able to
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    reproduce or re-hear foreign sounds
  • 00:00:42
    guranandan suspected that as we learn
  • 00:00:44
    the relative ease of comprehension
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    might be explained by changes in the
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    area of the brain that processes
  • 00:00:51
    language
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    it's been known since the 1800s that for
  • 00:00:54
    most people
  • 00:00:55
    the left hemisphere of the brain is
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    essential for language
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    however in more recent times we've
  • 00:01:02
    started to realize that
  • 00:01:03
    it's not quite that simple for example
  • 00:01:06
    when people suffer brain
  • 00:01:08
    injuries to the left hemisphere the
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    right hemisphere can take over language
  • 00:01:12
    tasks
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    that flexibility suggests that language
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    is not the exclusive domain
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    of the left hemisphere to find out if
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    the two sides of the brain
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    process comprehension and speech
  • 00:01:23
    differently during language learning who
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    renandan and her team
  • 00:01:26
    scanned the brains of spanish-speaking
  • 00:01:28
    volunteers who were learning either
  • 00:01:31
    basque
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    or english they performed language tasks
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    in the scanner
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    involving reading listening and speaking
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    in their native and their new language
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    and
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    then we looked at whether activation in
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    the language regions was greater in the
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    left hemisphere or in the right
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    hemisphere for each of the languages in
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    each task
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    the researchers found that speaking
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    primarily activated language regions in
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    the left side of the brain
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    no matter how advanced the language
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    learner was
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    but reading and listening comprehension
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    were much more variable
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    in the earlier stages of language
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    learning the native and new languages
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    tended to activate the same hemisphere
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    while in the more advanced learners
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    they activated different hemispheres and
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    the switch
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    from the same to the opposite
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    hemispheres was largest in reading
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    it was slightly smaller and listening
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    and it was non-existent in speaking
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    the researchers reason that speech may
  • 00:02:22
    be more constrained to the left
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    hemisphere
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    because it contains specialized circuits
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    dedicated to the motor control of speech
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    production
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    while in comprehension you have the
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    auditory system and the visual system
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    which are more bilateral and
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    is possible that is why comprehension is
  • 00:02:38
    more bilateral in the brain
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    the study is in the journal of
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    neuroscience
  • 00:02:43
    learning a new language will always be
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    challenging
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    but guru nandan says you shouldn't let
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    that stop you
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    language learning is a hard skill it's
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    hard for everybody but it's not because
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    of your brain plasticity
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    you can learn words you can learn drama
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    roles your language learning capacity is
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    just fine
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    as long as you maintain your joie de
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    vivre
Tags
  • language learning
  • brain hemispheres
  • comprehension
  • speech production
  • brain plasticity
  • neuroscience
  • Shipra Guranandan
  • Basque Center