Born ready for words
Dec. 7th, 2002 01:06 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
novapsycheYoung Baby Brain Already Primed to Learn Language
New research shows that babies' brains are primed to learn language long before they utter or understand their first words.
Dr. Ghislaine Dehaene-Lambertz of the Center National de la Recherche Scientifique in Paris and her colleagues found that while 3-month-old babies are read to in their native language, they show brain activity in some of the regions of the adult brain that specialize in language. Much of that activity disappears when sentences are read to the babies backwards, the authors report in the December 6th issue of the journal Science.
[...] Dehaene-Lambertz and her colleagues obtained their findings from imaging scans of 3-month-old babies' brains as they listened to sentences read in their own language, and as the speech was pronounced backwards. Dehaene-Lambertz explained to Reuters Health that backward speech has many similarities to forward speech, but lacks certain overall cues babies likely use to determine whether the words are in their own language or not, such as dips at the end of sentences and other qualities.
The authors found that babies showed more activity in brain regions associated with speech in adults when hearing words in their own language than when the words were read backwards.
In an interview with Reuters Health, Dehaene-Lambertz explained that one of the baby brain regions active during speech is the left angular gyrus, which, in adults, is more active when people listen to words than to non-words. The other region active in baby brains is the right prefrontal region, an area that shows more activity in adults when they hear words that had been said to them moments before, but not when listening to other words.
New research shows that babies' brains are primed to learn language long before they utter or understand their first words.
Dr. Ghislaine Dehaene-Lambertz of the Center National de la Recherche Scientifique in Paris and her colleagues found that while 3-month-old babies are read to in their native language, they show brain activity in some of the regions of the adult brain that specialize in language. Much of that activity disappears when sentences are read to the babies backwards, the authors report in the December 6th issue of the journal Science.
[...] Dehaene-Lambertz and her colleagues obtained their findings from imaging scans of 3-month-old babies' brains as they listened to sentences read in their own language, and as the speech was pronounced backwards. Dehaene-Lambertz explained to Reuters Health that backward speech has many similarities to forward speech, but lacks certain overall cues babies likely use to determine whether the words are in their own language or not, such as dips at the end of sentences and other qualities.
The authors found that babies showed more activity in brain regions associated with speech in adults when hearing words in their own language than when the words were read backwards.
In an interview with Reuters Health, Dehaene-Lambertz explained that one of the baby brain regions active during speech is the left angular gyrus, which, in adults, is more active when people listen to words than to non-words. The other region active in baby brains is the right prefrontal region, an area that shows more activity in adults when they hear words that had been said to them moments before, but not when listening to other words.