Brain anatomy differs in bilinguals: study
LONDON - Being bilingual produces changes in the anatomy of the brain, scientists say.
Researchers found people who speak two languages fluently have more grey matter in the region of the brain responsible for language.
Andrea Mechelli of University College London and her colleagues compared the brains of monolinguals with the brains of English-Italian bilinguals who had acquired their second language either as children or as adults.
They found the earlier people learned their second language and the better they performed in that language, the denser was the grey matter in their left inferior parietal cortex.
The finding suggests mastering a second language before age 35 may physically affect the brain.
For the study, researchers compared the grey matter in the brains of 25 people who speak one language, 25 people who learned a second language before age five, and 33 subjects who picked up their second language later in life.
Scientists don’t know if the change is caused by an increase in the size of brain cells or the number of connections between them.
The study appears in Thursday’s issue of the journal Nature.
Written by CBC News Online staff
http://www.cbc.ca/story/science/national/2004/10/13/brain_bilingual041013.html