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Bilinguals of Two Spoken Languages Have More Gray Matter Than Monolinguals

posted by takyon on Friday July 17 2015, @08:00PM   Printer-friendly
from the materia-gris dept.

Phoenix666 writes:

A new study published in the journal Cerebral Cortex suggests people who speak two languages have more gray matter in the executive control region of the brain.

In past decades, much has changed about the understanding of bilingualism. Early on, bilingualism was thought to be a disadvantage because the presence of two vocabularies would lead to delayed language development in children. However, it has since been demonstrated that bilingual individuals perform better, compared with monolinguals, on tasks that require attention, inhibition and short-term memory, collectively termed "executive control."

This "bilingual advantage" is believed to come about because of bilinguals' long-term use and management of two spoken languages. But skepticism still remains about whether these advantages are present, as they are not observed in all studies. Even if the advantage is robust, the mechanism is still being debated.

I find learning more languages makes it easier to acquire new ones because you get better at it, but idiomatic speech and use of metaphor seem to take a real hit.

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  • (Score: 2) by fritsd on Friday July 17 2015, @10:12PM

    by fritsd (4586) on Friday July 17 2015, @10:12PM (#210625) Journal

    Awel zunne, ik denk dagge der 'n bietje neffens zit, met dien Zwitsers en hun Vloms. Probeert het nog 'ns, maar nu een aantal steenworpen noordelijker, s'il vous de plâit.

    Switzerland was the only place where I've ever asked politely if they spoke English, because I was tired, in the train station:
    "do you speak English?"
    "NON!"
    "eh bien. ehm... je.. tu.. il.. passé composé..."

    I dunno about insane. Um.. I'll reserve my judgement..
    what if you speak most languages badly, and therefore can only absorb the surface of the various and sundry worldviews?

    I think everybody that's been to a few countries has learnt a few lessons about "live and let live". Is Portuguese difficult? The vowels sound very complicated. And is Brazilian just similar, or mostly the same?

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  • (Score: 2) by Phoenix666 on Friday July 17 2015, @10:37PM

    by Phoenix666 (552) on Friday July 17 2015, @10:37PM (#210636) Journal

    Holy cow, was that Swiss German blended with Flemish and wrapped up with French? I had a Belgian girlfriend once who would do that and throw in Mandarin every now and then to keep you on your toes. Crazy as a loon, that one.

    --
    Washington DC delenda est.

    • (Score: 2) by fritsd on Saturday July 18 2015, @01:00PM

      by fritsd (4586) on Saturday July 18 2015, @01:00PM (#210765) Journal

      Holy cow, was that Swiss German blended with Flemish and wrapped up with French?

      I was trying to aim for Flemish ("Vloms" [wikipedia.org]), so from your response I conclude I succeeded ;-)

      But honestly; the Belgians speak (much) better Dutch than the Dutch.