A recent study reveals that the links between various brain regions that handle language processing depend on the specific language that one grew up with.
Language Processing
As per Live Science, these significant network structure differences were observed among Arabic and German native speakers. Alfred Anwander, the lead author and a researcher from the Max Planck Institute for Human Cognitive and Brain Sciences, notes that the differences they have found are not mainly due to ethnicity but rather to the language spoken.
During birth, the language links are weak, even though the linguistic network is one of the brain's strongest. As humans gradually learn the language, the connections between different brain areas responsible for various language processing types become stronger.
Considering how some languages may tax specific language processing compared to others, the researchers wanted to assess how these linguistic differences affect how the said brain links form.
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Neuroscience of Linguistics
Findings were published in the NeuroImage journal. Xuehu Wei, a doctoral student, looked into the brain scans of 94 native speakers of the two distinct languages. Neuroscience News notes that these revealed that the language one grew up with affects brain wiring. Arabic and German native speakers underwent magnetic resonance imaging (MRI).
The high-resolution shots reveal brain anatomy and enable the derivation of brain connectivity through diffusion-weighted imaging. Data revealed that the connections of axonal white matter in this linguistic network adapt to the demands and difficulties of processing one's mother tongue.
More specifically, the scans showed that native German speakers had enhanced brain connectivity in the left hemisphere regions of language processing. In terms of syntax, the German language is quite complicated. This means that the sense of a sentence is based more on its grammatical form than its word order. Words that need each other for meaning could be at opposite points in a sentence. Anwander notes that the brain regions in charge of syntactic processing are mostly the frontal parts of the left hemisphere.
Arabic native speakers, on the other hand, had enhanced links between the right and left hemispheres compared to German native speakers. Anwander also noted that Arabic is semantically complicated, which means that despite fixing the word order, the meanings of the world can be harder to figure out.
Patrick Friedrich, a researcher from Forschungszentrum Jülich's Institute for Neuroscience and Medicine who did not participate in the study, noted that the neural linguistic network is understood as more or less universal among participants who have different mother tongues. Scientists have also observed processing differences when it comes to secondary languages.
Friedrick thought the study was interesting because it was the first to reveal the structural variations based on native experiences.
There is a possibility that the linguistic network that is affected by one's native language may also impact other cognitive capacities that are not related to language. For instance, the memory of a German speaker could be affected by their need to hear the entire sentence before understanding what it means.
Further Neuroscientific Research Required
According to David Green, an emeritus psychology professor from University College London, the work was technically accomplished. However, it came with various reservations. Green mentions to Live Science that a conversation's cultural aspects could also affect brain wiring.
Aside from this, the study also did not look into all the brain regions that participated in language processing. It also did not include brain activity measures that could be compared among individuals.
Nevertheless, the study demonstrates great potential. Anwander is considering whether it would be possible to know one's native language by checking brain scans. The team also wants to expand the work to cover more languages.
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