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Janet.... What a fascinating article, as are so many you share with our fellow List-sibs (LOVE that term you coined!). Thank you for educating me, enlightening me, touching my heart, and generally for just being YOU, Janet. Barb Mallut [log in to unmask] [log in to unmask] -----Original Message----- From: Parkinson's Information Exchange On Behalf Of janet paterson Sent: Thursday, July 24, 1997 5:43 AM To: Multiple recipients of list PARKINSN Subject: NEWS - Brain: language barriers ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Brain: Language barriers ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ by Henry Gee Babies raised in bilingual homes learn to speak two languages with equal fluency: yet anyone who has tried to learn a second language while at school or in adulthood knows how hard it can be. Why the difference? Is it a case -- to paraphrase humorist Tom Lehrer -- that learning a language is so simple that only a child can do it? The answer may lie, in part, with how the brain comes to be wired during development. A report in the 10 July 1997 issue of the science magazine Nature shows that the brains of people bilingual as babies ‘represent’ languages differently from those who learn a second language later. Facility in language is associated with part of the frontal lobe of the brain called Broca’s area. As Dr Joy Hirsch of the Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center and Cornell University Medical College in New York and colleagues found, the two ‘native’ languages share the occupancy of Broca’s area in people who learned both languages as babies. Their brains process thoughts expressed in one language as easily as in another. Presumably, these languages became incorporated into Broca’s area as the children were exposed to different languages during that crucial period in infancy when language was acquired -- and when the neural wiring Broca’s area became settled into its adult form. It’s different for those who acquired a second language later, as a distinct entity from the first, ‘native’ tongue. Even in people who come to be fluent in a second language, each language is processed by a distinct part of Broca’s area, separate from the part used to think thoughts in the native language. It is as if a latecoming language cannot penetrate to the heart of Broca’s area, because it is already occupied by the brain’s native language. Consequently, it is forced to take up residence and ‘make do’ in a slightly different part of the brain. In this arrangement, the two languages rub along together in the same brain, but never in the harmony enjoyed by languages in the truly bilingual person. [The researchers achieved these intriguing insights using a technique called functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI). This is one of a number of brain-scanning techniques used to identify the parts of brains that are active when subjects are asked to perform particular mental tasks -- in this case, to think in one or other language about events in their daily routine. An earlier study using a different but less sensitive technique called positron emission tomography (PET) did not produce results as clear- cut as those described by Dr Hirsch and her colleagues, but fMRI is more sensitive than PET, and can be used to pin the physical loci of thoughts in the brain down to within a few millimetres.] Macmillan Magazines Ltd 1997 - NATURE NEWS SERVICE Nature Macmillan Publishers Ltd. 1997 Registered No. 785998 England. <http://www.nature.com/Nature2/serve?SID=25027158&CAT=Corner&PG=Update/updat e316.html> ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ [log in to unmask]