Learn a Language to Exercise the Brain

Not only culture broadening, learning a new language is good for the brain.  Ping Li, from Pennsylvania State University (Pennsylvania, USA), and colleagues studied 39 native English speakers’ brains over a six-week period as half of the participants learned Chinese vocabulary.   Participants each underwent two MRI scans — one before the experiment began and one after — in order for the researchers to track neural changes.  Of the subjects learning the new vocabulary, those who were more successful in attaining the information showed a more connected brain network than both the less successful participants and those who did not learn the new vocabulary.  The researchers also found that the participants who were successful learners had a more connected network than the other participants even before learning took place. The study authors report that: “Successful learners showed a more coherent and integrated multi-path brain network after training.”