Researchers compared MRI scans of students’ brains before and after three months of intensive language study at a Swedish Military Interpreter Academy. Results showed that the hippocampus, involved in learning new information and in spatial navigation, as well as three areas in the cerebral cortex related to language and learning, grew in size.
The before-and-after images of the language students were also compared with those of university students studying medicine or cognitive sciences intensively.
“Even if we cannot compare three months of intensive language study with a lifetime of being bilingual, there is a lot to suggest that learning languages is a good way to keep the brain in shape,” researcher Johan Mårtensson remarks.
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Esther Liu
Esther is a Pedagogy & Curriculum Fall Associate. She received her TEFL certification through the University of Cambridge and has studied Greek, Hebrew, Japanese, Latin, Mandarin, and most recently Python. Passionate about educational linguistics, instructional design, intercultural communication, and new media, she also loves alphabetizing, biking, farming, food, people, piano, theology, traveling, and ultimate frisbee. An incurable ENFP, Esther believes in tech startups and is stoked to be at Voxy this fall!
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