Many people have experienced the feeling of being unable to grasp a new language. The reason may lie within the mechanism of the brain’s functioning.
Dr. Matt Leonard, a neurosurgeon at the University of California (USA), along with his research team, examined the cortex of several volunteers with epilepsy who had electrodes implanted in their brains for treatment support. The team was permitted to observe signals from these electrodes.
Dr. Matt Leonard in research – (Photo: Susan Merrell)
Next, Dr. Matt Leonard and his colleagues familiarized English-speaking volunteers with Mandarin Chinese. They were asked to distinguish between certain tones in vocabulary they heard for the first time.
Initially, most volunteers successfully identified the new sounds. However, their accuracy did not improve over time; instead, it fluctuated erratically.
Upon examining the cortical signals, the research team found that some areas of neurons were excited to receive new information while other regions showed almost no activity. The less contrast between these two states, the higher the sensitivity in experimental tasks.
The blue areas are “excited” about new foreign language information, contrasting with the inactivity of the red areas – (Photo: Susan Merrell)
This partly explains why some people find it much easier to absorb the sounds of a new language compared to others. Dr. Matt Leonard explains: “The activity of brain cells can be divided into two characteristics: plasticity and stability.
Plasticity reflects the brain’s ability to change; when new information is acquired, new connections form between neurons. In contrast, stability helps the brain retain what has been learned and known.”
Young children typically exhibit high plasticity, which aids in forming neural connections when learning new things. As a person ages, the formation of new connections between neurons decreases, thus significantly reducing the brain’s plasticity.
Learning a foreign language is always a challenge for many, especially as they age – (Photo: GETTY IMAGES)
Matt Leonard suggests that over time, the brain prioritizes stability. Essentially, the brain tends to retain important information already in our knowledge base rather than absorb new information.
Similarly, when learning a language, the brain often prefers to retain the mother tongue instead of incorporating new languages. This tendency increases with age.
Therefore, according to Dr. Matt Leonard, effort is essential. Additionally, those wishing to learn a foreign language need to create an environment that allows for regular exposure to new languages, thereby overcoming the inherent stability of the brain.
The study has just been published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS).
