Your brain on Language

A Swedish MRI study revealed the brain when learning a second language has a visual effect on the brain. Language learning increases the size of the brain. The scientists, from the Armed Forces Academy, found that the language in which a participant learned did not matter either.

What did matter was how quickly a learner could learn the language and retain it. Certain languages attribute to different parts of the brain, but it’s only with the speed of understanding of the language can the brain truly enhance itself.
The test was set up for two group. One a control, which used medicine and cognitive science students at the Umeå University. The scientists meant for the control group to have high cognitive skills, but not in languages.
The second group was made up of young people who had a high cognitive space for learning languages within a span of 13 months for fluency.
Regardless of how high the cognitive speed of the brains from the control group, those with the greater growth in the hippocampus and areas of the cerebral cortex had better skills than the other students. Meaning, the brain was larger after a language had been learned.
“Even if we cannot compare three months of intensive language study with a lifetime of being bilingual, there is a lot to suggest that learning languages is a good way to keep the brain in shape,” Johan Martensson, a researcher in psychology at the Lund University of Sweden, said in Science Daily.
According to Science daily, Previous research from other groups has indicated that Alzheimer’s disease has a later onset in bilingual or multilingual groups, meaning the ones who spoke a second language were less likely to have dementia than those who only spoke one language.
The scientist also stressed that the ability to obtain a more enhanced brain, a learner doesn’t have to obtain the language in childhood, rather anytime in life works! Language is an exercise for the brain and keeps it healthy and in shape! So exercise that brain and learn a new language!


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