Language Is Good for the Brain
February 21, 2025
The brain is a remarkable organ with an incredible ability to adapt and grow. Much like how physical exercise strengthens muscles, the act of learning and acquiring new information strengthens the brain. Each time you engage it; the brain reshapes its structure and enhances its functions. By challenging the brain through study and learning, you’re not just gaining information but actively training your mind to be more efficient and capable.
If you’re interested in improving your language development, there are several effective ways to strengthen your language learning and communication skills. Interestingly, learning a language is such a complex process that it enhances all of the brain regions involved. This growth is reflected in an increase in white and gray matter that house the brain’s neurons and synapses. While these changes aren’t physically noticeable like growing pains, they do deliver many cognitive benefits.
For many generations, scientists believed the brain's capabilities were fixed after a certain point in development, with neural connections eventually fading as we aged. However, research has since debunked this idea, showing that the brain can adapt and change throughout life, which is now the phenomenon known as neuroplasticity. This adaptability plays a key role in language learning, which involves both hemispheres of the brain instead of just the left side as previously thought.
The left and right hemispheres work together to process and integrate the various elements of language, such as grammar, vocabulary, pronunciation, and context. This collaboration highlights the complexity of language and shows how it stimulates the brain, enhancing cognitive skills like multitasking, decision-making, and attention to detail. So, learning a second language is not just an academic exercise; it’s a full-brain workout that strengthens mental agility. Moreover, this intricate process of adding a new language does engage multiple brain regions and activates them in a way that fosters multiple mental advantages.
So how much brain does my native language use?
Research reveals that the brain processes a native language far more efficiently than other languages due to early exposure and extensive use. This efficiency requires less neural activity, though it still engages a network of brain regions predominantly located in the left hemisphere. The Broca’s area, in the left frontal lobe, facilitates speech production, while the Wernicke’s area, in the left temporal lobe, manages language development and comprehension.
For native speakers, the language often dominates their early years and becomes their default for thinking, which explains why it feels almost effortless to use. Interestingly, studies indicate that processing a native language involves less overall brain activity compared to a second language, demonstrating heightened efficiency. Additionally, using multiple languages boosts gray matter volume in other areas of the brain, highlighting the cognitive benefits of bilingualism.
Despite the small size of the Broca and Wernicke areas, as they only make up less than 5% of the brain's physical mass, each region plays a crucial role in language processing. Remarkably, the total "data storage" required to use and store the English language in the brain was estimated at just 1.5 megabytes by a pair of researchers, one from the University of Rochester and the other at the University of California. This is a testament to the brain's incredible language efficiency.
How Brain Regions Produce Language
Scientists estimate that language capacity evolved around 100,000 years ago, with the human brain becoming uniquely adapted for processing language. Language is definitely one of the defining capabilities that sets humans apart from other species. Unlike animals who rely on instinctive forms of communication, human language is structured and flexible, requiring the creation and use of signals in dynamic ways. So spoken language is essentially "hard-wired" into regions of the human brain.
- Broca Area – The Broca area, located in the brain’s frontal lobe within the left hemisphere, plays a vital role in language processing and speech production. Discovered by Pierre Paul Broca, this area provided the first anatomical evidence linking specific brain regions to specific functions. Often referred to as the brain’s “command center” for speech, it coordinates the complex muscle movements required to articulate words and form sentences. Damage to this area can result in Broca's aphasia, a condition where individuals struggle to form grammatically correct sentences.
- Wernicke Area – The Wernicke area of the brain plays a critical role in language comprehension. Studied by Carl Wernicke in the 19th century, it acts as the brain’s "language processing center" that’s responsible for interpreting the meaning of language. Later, Geschwind expanded on Wernicke’s findings, describing it as vital for decoding perception and comprehension. Damage to this area can result in Wernicke's aphasia where someone says fluent sentences, but their words often lack coherence or meaning. They may also face significant challenges comprehending written texts.
- Motor Cortex Network – The motor cortex plays a key role in bridging the brain’s left and right hemispheres, particularly when it comes to language and speech, such as learning new vocabulary. It works closely with Broca's area to control the muscles required for speech production, such as those in the mouth and tongue, and transform linguistic plans from other brain regions into the physical actions needed to articulate words. Researchers believe that disruptions in the motor cortex neural network may underlie difficulties in language and speech processing.
The process of learning a second language can promote neuroplasticity, which is the brain's ability to adapt and form new neural connections. This means bilingual individuals tend to have better memory function compared to monolingual people and bilingualism can also improve executive function, which are the cognitive skills needed for planning, organizing and switching between tasks. Neuroplasticity is how the brain molds itself following a second language. Since it generally decreases as you age, it also explains why it is easier for a child to become bilingual.
Bilingual Speakers Can Switch Languages
When bilinguals switch between languages, their brains rely on regions associated with executive control, particularly the prefrontal cortex. This area actively inhibits the non-target language while activating the desired one, enabling a smooth transition between linguistic systems. This process involves complex cognitive mechanisms such as cue detection and selective response inhibition, allowing a bilingual speaker to manage their switch effectively.
Crucially, the brain doesn’t simply "turn off" one language and "turn on" the other. In fact, language switching is a very dynamic process where the brain continuously monitors context and adjusts language use accordingly. Interestingly, studies have shown that bilingualism enhances attention spans and task-switching abilities, as the mental exercise of managing multiple languages makes the brain more flexible (or plastic) and they become more adept at problem-solving.
Research reveals that bilinguals display heightened activity in multiple left-brain regions involved in language processing. A comparison of brain activity with monolinguals revealed that bilinguals have higher activity in five left-brain areas, including the dorsal precentral gyrus, pars triangularis, pars opercularis, superior temporal gyrus and planum temporale. Speaking different languages can also influence how individuals feel and behave, often reflecting the cultural traits.
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Although neuroplasticity generally decreases with age, studies show significant benefits associated with sequential bilingualism. where people learn a second language later in life. To ensure your event's communication is clear and crisp, let our experienced staff guide you in choosing your interpretation equipment, translation services, and portable listening devices. With an established network of providers, ProLingo can deliver the highest quality of standards for multilingual events anywhere in the world. Contact an event specialist today at 800-287-9755.
