Language: Research reports

Language strategies

March 2005

Poetry as a memory and concentration aid

A research group at Dundee and St Andrews universities claim poems exercise the mind more than a novel. They found poetry generated far more eye movement, and also that people read poems more slowly, concentrating and re-reading individual lines more than they did with prose. Imaging also showed greater levels of cerebral activity when people listened to poems being read aloud. Interestingly, they also found this was true even when the poem and prose text had identical content; it appears people read poems in a different way than prose. The researchers suggest the findings have implications for the way English literature is taught in schools, and may be helpful for children with certain learning difficulties, or even age-related memory problems.
http://news.scotsman.com/arts.cfm?id=352752005

Development of language

Too much knowledge can be bad for some types of memory

Following on from an earlier study reported last year, in which children were found to have better memories than adults in certain circumstances, researchers have found that adults did better remembering pictures of imaginary animals than they did remembering pictures of real cats. The reason has to do with the effects of categorization. While categorization is often vital, it can lead people to ignore individual details. The trick is to know when it’s important to categorize and when it’s better to note specific details. The new study added to the earlier findings by showing that there is a gradual decrease in recognition memory from children to adults, rather than an abrupt change in the way people see the world. Moreover, the difference in how adults and children perceive and remember objects is not a developmental difference, but one caused by differences in knowledge. Adults performed like children when shown imaginary animals.
The research was published in the May/June 2005 issue of Child Development. Full reference
http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2005-05/osu-tmk051005.htm

Language cues help visual learning in children

A study of 4-year-old children has found that language, in the form of specific kinds of sentences spoken aloud, helped them remember mirror image visual patterns. The children were shown cards bearing red and green vertical, horizontal and diagonal patterns that were mirror images of one another. When asked to choose the card that matched the one previously seen, the children tended to mistake the original card for its mirror image, showing how difficult it was for them to remember both color and location. However, if they were told, when viewing the original card, a mnemonic cue such as ‘The red part is on the left’, they performed “reliably better”.
The paper was presented by a graduate student at the 17th annual meeting of the American Psychological Society, held May 26-29 in Los Angeles.
http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2005-05/jhu-lc051705.htm

October 2004

Children process words by sound while adults process by meaning

A study into the question of how false memories are formed has found evidence of an age-related, developmental shift in language, suggesting that younger children process words primarily on the basis of phonology, or sound, while older children and adults process words primarily on the basis of semantics, or meaning.
The article was published in the November issue of Psychological Science. Full reference
http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2004-10/aps-att102604.htm
for a complete copy of the article, visit http://www.psychologicalscience.org/media/releases/2004/pr041026.cfm.

July 2004

Children outperform adults in memory study

An example of the perils of knowing too much! — under specific conditions, young children can beat most adults on a recognition memory test. The study compared young children (average age 5 years) with college students. Without being told what was being tested, participants were shown pictures of cats, bears and birds. Some of them were first shown a picture of a cat, and told that it had “beta cells inside its body”. They were then shown other pictures, and asked whether these animals also had beta cells. After this, they were shown other pictures, and asked whether they had been shown them before. The children were accurate on average 31% of the time; the college students only 7% of the time. The researchers suggested the reason was because the children used similarity-based induction: when asked whether each pictured animal had "beta cells", they looked carefully to see if the animal looked similar to the original cat. On the other hand, the adults used category-based induction: once they determined whether the animal pictured was a cat or not, they paid no more attention. Thus, when they were tested later, the adults didn't know the pictures as well as the children. A subsequent study taught the children to use category-based induction. Their performance then dropped to the level of the adults. Another study in which participants were simply shown the pictures of the 30 animals and told to remember them for a recognition test, found adults were accurate 42% of the time, compared to only 27% for the children.
The research will appear in the August edition of Psychological Science.Full reference
http://tinyurl.com/55r4n
http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2004-07/osu-cch072104.htm

Second language learning

March 2007

Early music training 'tunes' auditory system

Mandarin is a tonal language, that is, the pitch pattern is as important as the sound of the syllables in determining the meaning of a word. In a small study, a Mandarin word was presented to 20 adults as they watched a movie. All were native English speakers with no knowledge of Mandarin, but half had at least six years of musical instrument training starting before the age of 12, while half had minimal or no musical training. As the subjects watched the movie, the researchers measured the accuracy of their brainstem ability to track three differently pitched "mi" sounds. Those who were musically trained were far better at tracking the three different tones than the non-musicians. The study is the first to provide concrete evidence that playing a musical instrument significantly enhances the brainstem's sensitivity to speech sounds, and supports the view that experience with music at a young age can "fine-tune" the brain's auditory system. The findings are in line with previous studies suggesting that musical experience can improve one's ability to learn tone languages in adulthood, and are also consistent with studies revealing anomalies in brainstem sound encoding in some children with learning disabilities which can be improved by auditory training. The findings are also noteworthy for implicating the brainstem in processing that has been thought of as exclusively involving the cortex.
The study appears in the April issue of Nature Neuroscience. Full reference
http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2007-03/nu-rfm031207.htm
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/03/20/science/20lang.html?_r=1&oref=slogin

January 2007

Bilingualism has protective effect in delaying onset of dementia

An analysis of 184 people with dementia (132 were diagnosed with Alzheimer’s; the remaining 52 with other dementias) found that the mean age of onset of dementia symptoms in the 91 monolingual patients was 71.4 years, while for the 93 bilingual patients it was 75.5 years — a very significant difference. This difference remained even after considering the possible effect of cultural differences, immigration, formal education, employment and even gender as influencers in the results.
The study was published in the February issue of Neuropsychologia. Full reference
http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2007-01/bcfg-css011107.htm

Why learning a new language may make you forget your old one

The common experience of having difficulty remembering words in your native language when you’ve been immersed in a new language is called first-language attrition, and new research has revealed that it occurs because native language words that might distract us when we are mastering a new language are actively inhibited. The study also found that this inhibition lessened as students became more fluent with the new language, suggesting it principally occurs during the initial stages of second language learning.
The study appeared in the January issue of Psychological Science. Full reference
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2007/01/070118094015.htm
http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2007-01/afps-anl011807.htm
http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/Wordmaster/2007-01-23-voa4.cfm

October 2006

How bilingualism affects the brain

Using a new technique, researchers have shed light on how bilingualism affects the brain. The study involved 20 younger adults of whom half were bilingual in Spanish and English. Similar brain activity, in the left Broca's area and left dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC), was found in bilinguals and monolinguals when the task involved only one language. However, when the bilinguals were simultaneously processing each of their two languages and rapidly switching between them, they showed an increase in brain activity in both the left and the right hemisphere Broca's area, with greater activation in the right equivalent of Broca's area and the right DLPFC. The findings support the view that the brains of bilinguals and monolinguals are similar, and both process their individual languages in fundamentally similar ways, but bilinguals engage more of the neurons available for language processing.
The study was presented at the Society for Neuroscience's annual meeting on October 14-18 in Atlanta, Ga.
http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2006-10/dc-drf101706.htm

June 2006

How does the bilingual brain distinguish between languages?

Studies of bilingual people have found that the same brain regions, particularly parts of the left temporal cortex, are similarly activated by both languages. But there must be some part of the brain that knows one language from another. A new imaging study reveals that this region is the left caudate — a finding supported by case studies of bilingual patients with damage to the left caudate, who are prone to switch languages involuntarily.
The study appeared in the June 9 issue of Science. Full reference
http://sciencenow.sciencemag.org/cgi/content/full/2006/608/2?etoc

April 2006

Fast language learners have more white matter in auditory region

An imaging study has found that fast language learners have more white matter in a region of the brain that’s critical for processing sound. The study involved 65 French adults in their twenties, who were asked to distinguish two closely related sounds (the French 'da' sound from the Hindi 'da' sound). There was considerable variation in people’s ability to learn to tell these sounds apart — the fastest could do it within 8 minutes; the slowest were still guessing randomly after 20 minutes. The 11 fastest and 10 slowest learners were then given brain scans, revealing that the fastest learners had, on average, 70% more white matter in the left Heschl's gyrus than the slowest learners, as well as a greater asymmetry in the parietal lobe (the left being bigger than the right).
The findings were published online ahead of print on April 7 in Cerebral Cortex. Full reference
http://www.newscientist.com/article.ns?id=dn8964&print=true

May 2005

Language learning declines after second year of life

A study involving 96 deaf children who had received cochlear implants during their first four years of life has found that the rate of language learning was greatest for those given implants before they turned two. Children given implants at three or four years of age acquired language skills more slowly. The finding supports the idea that there is a 'sensitive period' for language learning, and suggests that deaf children should get cochlear implants sooner (it is still relatively rare for them to be given to children younger than two).
The findings were presented on 16 May at the Acoustical Society of America conference in Vancouver, Canada.
http://www.nature.com/news/2005/050516/full/050516-1.html

March 2005

Baby talk helps infants learn to speak

Most adults speak to infants using so-called infant-directed speech: short, simple sentences coupled with higher pitch and exaggerated intonation. Researchers have long known that babies prefer to be spoken to in this manner. A new study of 8-month-old infants reveals that infant-directed speech also helps infants learn words more quickly than normal adult speech. Thiessen's study may also explain why many adults struggle to learn a second language.
The study was published in the March issue of Infancy.
http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2005-03/cmu-cms031505.htm

October 2004

Learning languages increases gray matter density

An imaging study of 25 Britons who did not speak a second language, 25 people who had learned another European language before the age of five and 33 bilinguals who had learned a second language between 10 and 15 years old found that the density of the gray matter in the left inferior parietal cortex of the brain was greater in bilinguals than in those without a second language. The effect was particularly noticeable in the "early" bilinguals. The findings were replicated in a study of 22 native Italian speakers who had learned English as a second language between the ages of two and 34.
The findings were published in the 14 October issue of Nature.Full reference
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/health/3739690.stm

June 2004

Being fluent in two languages may help keep the brain sharper for longer

A study of 104 people aged between 30 and 88 has found that those who were fluent in two languages rather than just one were sharper mentally. Those fluent in two languages responded faster on tasks assumed to place demands on working memory, compared to those who were fluent in just English, at all age groups. This is consistent with the theory that constant management of 2 competing languages enhances executive functions. Bilingual volunteers were also much less likely to suffer from the mental decline associated with old age. The finding is consistent with other research suggesting that mental activity helps in protecting older adults from mental decline. The participants were all middle class, and educated to degree level. Half of the volunteers came from Canada and spoke only English. The other half came from India and were fluent in both English and Tamil.
The report appeared in the June issue of Psychology and Aging. Full reference
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/health/3794479.stm

Learning a second language may not be as laborious as believed

A study of adult learners of a second language has revealed that their brains still possess a surprising facility for learning words — much greater than the learner is consciously aware of. College students learning first-year French demonstrated brain activity that was clearly discriminating between real and pseudo-French words after only 14 hours of classroom instruction, although the students performed only at chance levels when asked to consciously choose whether or not the stimuli were real French words. The greater the exposure to French, the larger the difference in brain response to words and pseudo words.
The report was published June 13 in the on-line edition of Nature Neuroscience.Full reference
http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2004-06/uow-baw061104.htm

November 2003

Beneficial effects of bilingual learning

A recent Canadian study comparing young monolingual children to bilingual found that bilingual children were much better at a non-language cognitive task. The 4-6 year old bilingual children were versed in a spoken language and a signing one. It was suggested that their higher cognitive skill was due to the increased computational demands of processing two different language systems.
http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2003-11/sfn-ssb111103.htm

October 2003

Both languages active in bilingual speakers

An imaging study involving bilingual Dutch and English speakers suggests that when a bilingual person is speaking a second language, the first language is always active and cannot be suppressed. It was thought that an environment of total immersion in a language would provide massive exposure to a second language and suppress the first language. However, it’s now suggested that a large component of language immersion involves learning a new set of cues to the second language. To test this, students with no exposure to German or Dutch were taught 40 Dutch words. Some students learned the words in association with their English counterparts and others learned the words in association with a picture. Some of the pictures were oriented in the normal way and others were upside down or otherwise skewed. People who learned the Dutch in association with an object that was oriented uniquely were faster to later translate English words into Dutch. The misoriented pictures served as a unique cue.
The research was presented at the Second Language Research Forum, October 18, in Tucson, Arizona.
http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2003-10/ps-bla101703.htm

January 2003

Second language best taught in childhood

Sadly, it does appear that the easiest time to learn a second language is, indeed, in childhood. An imaging study has found that when grammatical judgement in the second language was compared to grammatical judgement in first language (as evidenced by performance on sentences with grammatical mistakes), there was no difference in brain activation in those who learned the second language as children. However, people who acquired the second language late and with different proficiency levels displayed significantly more activity in the Broca's region during second language grammatical processing. "This finding suggests that at the level of brain activity, the parallel learning of the two languages since birth or the early acquisition of a second language are crucial in the setting of the neural substrate for grammar."
The research was published in Neuron. Full reference

January 2002

Study finds there's a critical time for learning all languages, including sign language

It is generally believed that there is a critical period for learning a first language, and that children not exposed to language during this period will never fully acquire language. It is also thought that this might apply as well to second language learning — that those who learn another language after puberty can never become as fluent as those who learn it before puberty. A recent study suggests that this may also be true for non-verbal languages. Using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), it was found that patterns of brain activity in bilingual people who learned American Sign Language (ASL) before puberty differed from those who learned it after puberty.
The findings are reported in the January issue of Nature Neuroscience. Full reference
http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2002-01/uow-sft010202.htm

neural substrate of language

April 2006

Specific brain region for reading

Although a number of imaging studies have provided support for the idea that there’s a specific area of the brain that enables us to read efficiently by allowing us to process the visual image of entire words, the question is still debated — partly because the same area also seems to be involved in the recognition of other objects and partly because damage in this region has never been confined to this region alone. Now the experience of an epileptic requiring removal of a small area next to the so-called visual word-form area (VWFA) in the left occipito-temporal cortex has provided evidence of the region's importance for reading. After the operation, the patient’s ability to comprehend words was dramatically slower, and the results were consistent with him reading letter by letter. A brain scan confirmed that the VWFA no longer lit up when words were read, perhaps because the surgery severed its connection to other parts of the brain.
The case study was reported in the 20 April issue of Neuron. Full reference
http://sciencenow.sciencemag.org/cgi/content/full/2006/419/2?etoc
http://www.sciam.com/article.cfm?chanID=sa003&articleID=000D3A4E-A8D1-1446-9A6283414B7F0000

May 2005

Brain networks change according to cognitive task

Using a newly released method to analyze functional magnetic resonance imaging, researchers have demonstrated that the interconnections between different parts of the brain are dynamic and not static. Moreover, the brain region that performs the integration of information shifts depending on the task being performed. The study involved two language tasks, in which subjects were asked to read individual words and then make a spelling or rhyming judgment. Imaging showed that the lateral temporal cortex (LTC) was active for the rhyming task, while the intraparietal sulcus (IPS) was active for the spelling task. The inferior frontal gyrus (IFG) and the fusiform gyrus (FG) were engaged by both tasks. However, Dynamic Causal Modeling (the new method for analyzing imaging data) revealed that the network took different configurations depending on the goal of the task, with each task preferentially strengthening the influences converging on the task-specific regions (LTC for rhyming, IPS for spelling). This suggests that task specific regions serve as convergence zones that integrate information from other parts of the brain. Additionally, switching between tasks led to changes in the influence of the IFG on the task-specific regions, suggesting the IFG plays a pivotal role in making task-specific regions more or less sensitive. This is consistent with previous studies showing that the IFG is active in many different language tasks and plays a role in integrating brain regions.
The findings were presented in the June 1 issue of the Journal of Neuroscience. Full reference
http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2005-06/nu-bnc060105.htm

Brain region for understanding metaphors located

Four righthanded patients with damage to the left angular gyrus provide evidence that the angular gyrus is at least partly responsible for the human ability to understand metaphor. The angular gyrus is disproportionately larger in hominids than other primates, and is strategically located at the crossroads of areas specialized for processing touch, hearing and vision.
The paper was presented at the American Psychological Society annual convention in Los Angeles, May 26-29.
http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2005-05/uoc--gmu052005.htm

How the brain handles sarcasm

A study involving people with prefrontal-lobe damage, people with posterior-lobe damage and healthy controls, found that those with prefrontal damage were impaired in comprehending sarcasm, whereas the people in the other two groups had no such problem. Within the prefrontal group, people with damage in the right ventromedial area had the most trouble in comprehending sarcasm. The researchers suggest that the frontal lobes process the context, identifying the contradiction between the literal meaning and the social/emotional context, while the ventromedial prefrontal cortex integrates the literal meaning with the social/emotional knowledge of the situation and previous situations.
The findings appeared in the May issue of Neuropsychology. Full reference
Full text of the article is available at http://www.apa.org/journals/releases/neu193288.pdf
http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2005-05/apa-tao051705.htm

December 2004

Third language area in brain identified

Broca's and Wernicke's areas are two, connected, regions of the brain long known to be involved in language. Now, a new imaging study has identified a third area, dubbed Geschwind's territory. This area connects Broca's and Wernicke's areas via a region of the parietal lobe of the cortex, and may be important for the acquisition of language in childhood. The area is apparently the last area in the brain to mature, the completion of its maturation coinciding with the development of reading and writing skills.
The study was published online on 13 December in the Annals of Neurology. Full reference
http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2004-12/jws-bir120704.htm

March 2004

Different brain regions for arousing and non-arousing words

An imaging study has found that words representing arousing events (e.g., “rape”, “slaughter”) activate cells in the amygdala, while nonarousing words (e.g., “sorrow”, “mourning”) activated cells in the prefrontal cortex. The hippocampus was active for both type of words. On average, people remembered more of the arousing words than the others, suggesting stress hormones, released as part of the response to emotionally arousing events, are responsible for enhancing memories of those events.
The findings were published in the March 2 issue of Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. Full reference
http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2004-03/miot-mlu030104.htm

February 2004

Reading verbs activates motor cortex areas

A new imaging study has surprised researchers by revealing that parts of the motor cortex respond when people do nothing more active than silently reading. However, the words read have to be action words. When such words are read, appropriate regions are activated – for example, reading “lick” will trigger blood flow in sites of the motor cortex associated with tongue and mouth movements. Moreover, activity also occurs in premotor brain regions that influence learning of new actions, as well as the language structures, Broca's area and Wernicke's area. The researchers suggest that these findings challenge the assumption that word meanings are processed solely in language structures – instead, our understanding of words depends on the integration of information from several interconnected brain structures that provide information about associated actions and sensations.
The report appeared in the January 22 issue of Neuron. Full reference
http://www.sciencenews.org/20040207/fob2.asp

November 2002

Imaging confirms people knowledge processed differently

Earlier research has demonstrated that semantic knowledge for different classes of inanimate objects (e.g., tools, musical instruments, and houses) is processed in different brain regions. A new imaging study looked at knowledge about people, and found a unique pattern of brain activity was associated with person judgments, supporting the idea that person knowledge is functionally dissociable from other classes of semantic knowledge within the brain.
The report appeared in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Science USA. Full reference
http://www.pnas.org/cgi/content/abstract/99/23/15238?etoc

November 2001

Competition between memory systems

Learning and memory in humans rely upon several memory systems. For example, the medial temporal lobe (MTL) is associated with declarative learning (facts and events). The basal ganglia is associated with nondeclarative learning (learning you derive from experience, that may not be conscious). A recent imaging study looked at how these memory systems interact during classification learning. During the nondeclarative learning task, there was an increase in activity in the basal ganglia, and a decrease in activity in the MTL. During the memorization task (testing declarative learning), the reverse was true. Further examination found rapid modulation of activity in these regions at the beginning of learning, suggesting that subjects relied upon the medial temporal lobe early in learning. However, this dependence rapidly declined with training.
The report appeared in the 29 November issue of Nature. Full reference
http://www.nature.com/cgi-taf/DynaPage.taf?file=/nature/journal/v414/n6863/abs/414546a0_fs.html
http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2001-11/mgh-isi112601.htm

Separate brain regions for living vs nonliving categories

Lobectomy patients were compared to normal control subjects on a variety of category naming and matching tasks. Patients were disproportionately impaired for naming living things relative to nonliving things. The authors argue that damage to the temporal lobe impairs lexical retrieval most strongly for living things and that the anterior temporal cortices are convergence zones particularly necessary for retrieving the names of living things.
The report appeared in the November issue of Brain and Language. Full reference

Imaging studies don't support a categorical organisation of semantic memory at the neural level

Patients with semantic impairments sometimes demonstrate category-specific deficits suggesting that the anatomical substrates of semantic memory may reflect categorical organisation, however, neuroimaging studies have failed to provide consistent data in support of a category-based account. A further three studies have also failed to find robust evidence of functional segregation by domain or categories. It's argued that these results are most consistent with a semantic system undifferentiated by category at the neural level.
The report appeared in the November issue of Neuropsychologia. Full reference
http://tinyurl.com/i87u

Language disorders & problems

January 2007

Genetic cause for word-finding disease

Primary Progressive Aphasia is a little-known form of dementia in which people lose the ability to express themselves and understand speech. People can begin to show symptoms of PPA as early as in their 40's and 50's. A new study has found has discovered a gene mutation in two unrelated families in which nearly all the siblings suffered from PPA. The mutations were not observed in the healthy siblings or in more than 200 controls.
The study was published in the January issue of Archives of Neurology. Full reference
http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2007-01/nu-rdg011507.htm

Word substitution mistakes have more to do with speech planning than with thought or attention problems

Why is it that we can look at something, know what it is and still call it by the wrong name? A new study suggests that the problem doesn’t lie in haste or a lack of attention, but rather in a fault in speech planning.
The study was published in the December issue of Psychological Science. Full reference
A full copy of the article is available at the APS Media Center at www.psychologicalscience.org/media.
http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2004-12/aps-sot120804.htm