PNAS: Study reveals how children learn languages

9, 2020 /--- -- In a recent study, neuroscientists from Georgetown University found that the brains of infants and young children have some kind of super power.
the two hemispheres of the adult brain handle different tasks, and the infant's brain can work together on the same tasks.
findings reveal the underlying causes of nerve damage in children more likely than adults.
study was published in the journal PNAS on September 7, 2020.
explores the ability of children to understand language.
by Dr. Elissa L. Newport, a professor of neurology at Georgetown University.
good news for young children suffering from nerve damage.
work of the two hemispheres provides a mechanism for compensating after nerve damage.
, for example, if a perinatal stroke causes damage to the left hemisphere, the child will use the right hemisphere to learn the language.
only one hemisphere of cerebral palsy can develop the cognitive abilities needed in the other hemisphere.
our research proves that this is possible.
(Photo: www.pixabay.com) Based on brain scans and clinical findings of language loss in patients with left hemisphere stroke, sentence processing is only available in the left hemisphere in almost all adults.
in very young children, injuries to either hemisphere are less likely to lead to language defects.
even if the left hemisphere is severely damaged, many patients can regain their language skills.
these facts show that the development of language ability in the early stages of life is done through the joint treatment of two hemispheres.
, traditional scanning methods have not revealed details of these phenomena until now.
Now, through more complex functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) analysis, researchers have shown that adult lateral patterns have not been established in young children and that both hemispheres are involved in the formation of language abilities in early development.
(bioon.com) Source: Children use both brain hemispheres to understand language, unlike adults Original source: Olumide A. Olulade el al., "The neural basis of language development: Changes in lateralization over," PNAS (2020).