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News Front Page Last Updated:  Monday, 30 June, 2003, 00:25 GMT 01:25 UK
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UK Chinese 'takes more brainpower'

England
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Medical notes found that people who speak
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Mandarin Chinese use both RELATED INTERNET LINKS:
sides of their brain to Wellcome Trust
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Environment understand the language. Mandarin speakers use both sides Royal Society
Technology of their brain MRC Cognition and Brain
Sciences Unit
Entertainment This compares to English-language speakers who only need to
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Brain scans
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Dr Sophie Scott and colleagues at the Wellcome Trust carried
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out brain scans on a group of Mandarin and English speakers.
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ON THIS DAY
They found that the left temporal lobe, which is located by
EDITORS' BLOG
the left temple, becomes active when English speakers hear
English.

The researchers believe that People who speak

this area of the brain links different sorts of languages
speech sounds together to use their brains to decode
form individual words. speech in different ways

Dr Sophie Scott,
They expected similar findings Wellcome Trust
when they carried out scans
on Mandarin speakers.

However, they found that both their left and right temporal
lobes become active when they hear Mandarin.

"People who speak different sorts of languages use their

brains to decode speech in different ways," said Dr Scott.

"It overturned some long-held theories."

Mandarin is a notoriously difficult language to learn. Unlike

English, speakers use intonation to distinguish between
completely different meanings of particular words.

For instance, the word "ma" can mean mother, scold, horse or
hemp depending on how it is said.

The researchers believe that this need to interpret intonation

is why Mandarin speakers need to use both sides of their
brain.

The right temporal lobe is normally associated with being able

to process music or tones.

"We think that Mandarin speakers interpret intonation and

melody in the right temporal lobe to give the correct meaning
to the spoken words," said Dr Scott.

"It seems that the structure of the language you learn as a

child affects how the structure of your brain develops to
decode speech.

"Native English speakers, for example, find it extraordinarily

difficult to learn Mandarin."

Learning languages

Dr Scott said the findings could help scientists to understand

 how the brain learns language.

It could be particularly useful in trying to understand how it

re-learns language after a stroke.

She suggested it could also lead to new drugs to help people

who have lost their language skills.

"There is evidence from other studies that certain drugs

affect learning in the brain regions that support hearing and
speech," she said.

"This is something we can improve on."

Dr William Marslen-Wilson, of the MRC Cognition and Brain

Sciences Unit at Cambridge University, welcomed the study.

"It is an interesting finding," he told BBC News Online.

"Looking at languages that are very different from each other

helps us to understand how the brain processes language.

"It can also help us to understand language rehabilitation," he

said.

"This field is really opening up but it is very early days."

The findings will be included in the summer science exhibition

at the Royal Society in London, which runs from 1 to 3 July.

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