Language
learning can increase brain size!
Researchers compared MRI scans of students’ brains before and after
three months of intensive language study at a Swedish Military Interpreter
Academy. Results showed that the hippocampus, involved in learning new information and
in spatial navigation, as well as three areas in the cerebral
cortex related to language and learning, grew in size.
The before-and-after images of the language students were also compared
with those of university students studying medicine or cognitive sciences
intensively.
“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,” researcher Johan
Mårtensson remarks.
