• Skip to main content
  • Skip to header right navigation
  • Skip to site footer
Science Update

Science Update

Sharing Science | Satisfying Curiosity | Debunking BS

  • Spotlights
  • Reality Check
  • Why Is It?
  • Radio Archives
  • Sciup @ School
Home » Radio Archive » Daily Show » Lost Languages in the Brain

Lost Languages in the Brain

November 24, 2014
https://podcast.scienceupdate.com/141124_sciup_adopt.mp3

Podcast: Play in new window

BOB HIRSHON (host):

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA
(Jacky Yang/Flickr)

Retrieving hidden languages. I’m Bob Hirshon and this is Science Update.

Children who are adopted internationally begin their lives hearing one language, but often grow up speaking a different one. But the first language might not be entirely lost, according to a report in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. McGill University researchers Lara Pierce, Denise Klein and their colleagues had girls listen to Chinese sounds while in a brain scanner. They compared French speaking girls who had been adopted from China as young children to Chinese-French bilinguals and to girls who spoke only French. Klein says in Chinese, similar sounds can mean different things depending on their pitch.

DENISE KLEIN (McGill University):

The French-only individuals processed these tones like a pitch changes.

HIRSHON:

But she says both bilinguals and the adoptees activated regions of the brain important for language processing. This suggests that early experiences with a language can’t easily be overwritten. I’m Bob Hirshon, for AAAS, the science society.

Category: Daily Show, Station Download
Previous Post: « Flying Without Wings
Next Post: NanoArchaeology »

Sidebar

Radio Program Archives

Want to learn more about the brain? The environment? Here you can browse the topics that come up regularly on Science Update.

Search the Archives

Categories

  • Daily Show
  • Station Download
  • Weekly Show

Find By Tag

  • 2020
  • Acoustics & Sound
  • Aging
  • Animal Behavior
  • Anthropology
  • Archaeology
  • Astronomy & Space
  • Biology
  • Brain Science
  • Bugs
  • Chemistry
  • Children & Families
  • cicadas
  • Climate & Weather
  • Communications
  • Computer Science
  • Economics & Business
  • Education
  • Energy
  • Engineering & Technology
  • Environment & Conservation
  • Genetics & Evolution
  • Geology
  • Marine Science
  • Materials Science
  • Mathematics
  • Medicine & Health
  • Microbiology
  • Nanotechnology
  • Nutrition & Food Science
  • Paleontology & Dinosaurs
  • Physics
  • Plants & Agriculture
  • Political Science
  • Reality Check
  • Social & Behavioral Sciences
  • Sports & Fitness
  • spotlight
  • Spotlight Bugs
  • Terrorism & War
  • Why Is It? Questions
  • Wildlife
  • Year in Review

Find By Date

Science Update
  • About Science Update
  • Privacy Policy
  • Terms of Use

Follow Us

Recent Posts

House sparrow wearing top hat rides aboard a red fireworks rocket
Biologist E.O. Wilson with children
Diagram showing Earth's tilt

Copyright © 2022 · Springtail Media LLC · All Rights Reserved · Powered by Pongos