Learning dialects shapes brain areas that process spoken language

Learning dialects shapes brain areas that process spoken language

We can extract meaning from language based not just on the specific word spoken, but also how it’s pronounced. Accents and dialects can alter pronunciation and make it difficult even for people speaking a common language to understand each other. New research published in the journal Brain and Language has found that the dialect you learn as a young child alters how you process language later in life. Scientists at RIKEN in Japan used Near Infrared Spectroscopy (NIRS) to look at activity in each brain hemisphere while native Japanese speakers listened to a different Japanese dialect. The participants had to distinguish between similar word pairs that used different pitches and accents to create meaning- in English, this would be like understanding that PROduce refers to leafy greens and fresh fruits whereas proDUCE refers to manufacturing. Study participants who spoke the standard Japanese dialect used these pitches and accents in everyday speech, whereas another dialect speakers do not use these details. The NIRS results revealed that the left hemisphere, which is known to process word meaning, was predominantly active in speakers of the standard Japanese dialect. The alternate dialect speakers did not show any hemisphere-specific activation, which shows that these speakers process standard Japanese dialect almost like a second language. The researchers say that the way a person learns a language at a young age will shape the way that language is processed in the brain.

Read more:
http://www.riken.jp/en/pr/press/2013/20131019_1/
Journal article: Dialectal differences in hemispheric specialization for Japanese lexical pitch accent. Brain and Language, 2013. doi: 10.1016/j.bandl.2013.09.008
Story via Neuroscience Research Techniques
Image via Wikimedia Commons