Source：科学60秒
Date：2013.02.28
Summary
研究人员发现，研究语言的人往往在大脑的某些区域表现出显著的增长。 Researchers have found that people who study languages tend to show significant growth in certain areas of the brain.
Learning a new language can grow one’s perspective. Now scientists find that learning languages grows parts of the brain. Scientists studied the brains of students in the Swedish Armed Forces Interpreter Academy, who are required to learn new languages at an alarmingly fast rate. Many must become fluentin Arabic, Russian and the Persiandialect Dariin just 13 months. The researchers compared the brains of these students to the brains of medical students who also have to learn a tremendousamount in a very short period of time, but without the focus on languages. The brains of the language learners exhibited significant new growth in the hippocampusand in parts of the cerebral cortex. The medical students’ brains showed no observed growth. The study was in the journal NeuroImage. Interestingly, the amount of growth in the brains of the linguists correlated with better skills—so those with better language skills also experienced more growth in the hippocampus and areas of the cerebral cortex that relate to language. For other students who had to work harder to improve their language skills, the scientists found greater growth in the motor area of the cerebral cortex. Where and how much change take place in the brain are linked to how easily one picks up a language. But it remains to be seen why this is.
Swedish Armed Forces Interpreter Academy：瑞典军事翻译学院
fluent：[ˈflu:ənt] 流利的，流畅的，液态的
Arabic：[ˈærəbɪk] 阿拉伯语；阿拉伯语的
Persian：[ˈpɜ:ʃn] 波斯的，波斯人的，波斯语的；波斯人，波斯语
Dari：达里语（现代波斯语的一种，主要为塔吉克人使用）
tremendous：[trəˈmendəs] 极大的，巨大的，可怕的，惊人的，极好的
hippocampus：[ˌhɪpəˈkæmpəs] 海马体（大脑中被认为是感情和记忆中心的部分）
NeuroImage：《神经影像》
联系客服
