A person’s native language can significantly influence how you think. This idea, which has been present for some time in fields such as philosophy or linguistic studies, has just found confirmation in the field of neurology.
Structural changes in the brain
There are several examples that have been raised about the way in which the language we speak can have a cognitive impact. Thus, a classic one is the one that contrasts the terms ‘to be’ and ‘to be’ present in the Spanish language with the languages that only use one word to refer indistinctly to both concepts. Some studies, on the other hand, had looked at the different words used to refer to directions in different native languages and their relationship with the sense of direction that individuals have.
Now, a recent study published in the specialized media NeuroImage has found evidence of differences in circuits of the area of the brain responsible for language processing among native speakers of Arabic and German.
This suggests that learning a certain language during childhood could lead to structural changes in the brain, potentially explaining differences in cognitive function between individuals who speak different languages as their first language.
connections between hemispheres
In this work, the authorss use imaging techniques (specifically, MRI) on German and Arabic speaking participants. This method revealed a number of notable differences: for example, German speakers showed stronger connections between the brain regions involved in processing within each hemisphere than Arabic speakers.
Rather, brain connections between language areas in different hemispheres were stronger in Arabic speakerssomething that researchers believe could be due to Arabic’s semantic complexity and right-to-left writing system.
Similarly, in German speakers the connections were stronger in the areas in charge of syntactic processing (‘structure’ of the language), while those with Arabic as their native language were more robust in the areas of semantic processing (‘meanings’ of the language).
According to these authors, “This study provides significant support for the importance of the environment and mother tongue in brain development, and in particular in the form of connections that directly influence behavior.” cognitive processing in the brain. This could point in the direction that individual personality is not ‘pre-programmed’ in our brain, but is the result of lifelong experiences. In addition, they add, it can offer the keys to personalize treatments for people with neurological diseases.
References
Xuehu Wei, Helyne Adamson, Matthias Schwendemann, Thomas Goucha, Angela D. Friederici, Alfred Anwander. Native language differences in the structural connectome of the human brain. NeuroImage (2023). DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.neuroimage.2023.119955