Learning a New Language Expands the Brain

Learning a New Language Expands the Brain

Print Friendly, PDF & Email

Learning a new language makes the brain grow, according to a new study. Swedish scientists studied young recruits at the Swedish Armed Forces Interpreter Academy by measuring the brains of participants before and after the language training.

Researchers, who published their study in the journal NeuroImage, noted that students who had to put more effort into leaning a new language exhibited greater growth in the motor region of the cerebral cortex or the middle frontal gyrus. Researchers linked that the areas of the brain in which the changes take place to how easy one finds it to learn a language and development varies according to performance. Previous studies found that Alzheimer’s disease has a later onset in bilingual or multilingual groups and researchers from the latest study said that learning a new language is a good way to keep the brain healthy.