The Brain that Changes Itself
Norman Doidge, MD
Excerpts from the book
Page 87...
That’s why learning a new language in old age is so good for improving and maintaining the memory generally. Because it requires intense focus, studying a new language turns on the control system for plasticity and keeps it in good shape for laying down sharp memories of all kinds. No doubt Fast ForWord is responsible for so may general improvements in thinking, in part because it stimulates the control system for plasticity to keep up its production of acetylcholine and dopamine. Anything that requires highly focused attention will help that system – learning new physical activities that require concentration, solving challenging puzzles, or making a career change that requires that you master new skills and material. Merzenich himself is an advocate of learning a new language in old age. “You will gradually sharpen everything up again, and that will be very highly beneficial to you.”
Page 156...
Many of these same principles are used in “immersion” learning of a foreign language. How many of us have taken language courses over years and not learned as much as when we went to the country and “immersed” ourselves in the language for a far shorter period? Our time spent with people who don’t speak our native tongue, forcing us to speak theirs, is the “constraint.” Daily immersion allows us to get “ massed practice.” Our accent suggests to others that they may have to use simpler language with us; hence we are incrementally challenged, or shaped. Learned nonuse is thwarted, because our survival depends on communication.
Page 399...
culture shock is brain shock: Learning a new culture as an adult requires that one use new parts of the brain, at least for language. Brain scans show that people who learn one language and then, after a time lag, learn another store the languages in separate areas. When bilingual people have strokes, they sometimes lose the ability to speak one language but not the other. Such people have distinct neuronal networks for their two languages, and perhaps for other aspects of their two cultures. But brain scans also show that children raised learning two languages simultaneously during the critical period develop an auditory cortex that represents both languages together. This is why Merzenich advocates learning as many different language sounds a possible in early childhood: such children develop a single, large cortical library of sounds and have an easier time learning languages later in life.