Redwolf wrote:
It would also be interesting to do a followup study to see if this makes the ability to learn the mother language (Mandarin, in this case) easier when the children are older.
From the article:
Quote:
But Klein noted that the study is a preliminary one and the researchers don't yet know what the results mean.
For example, would adopted children exposed to Chinese in infancy have an easier time relearning Chinese later, compared with monolingual French-speaking children who were learning it for the first time?
Pierce said studies trying to figure that out have had mixed results, but she hopes the findings in this study could generate better ways to tackle that question.
There's been lots of studies that attempted to find a link between early childhood exposure and later mastery, but there's been no reliable consistency in the results.
As for more detailed scanning, well, the technology is always improving, but there is a limit to how precise you can be when every individual brain is different.
But the wording of part of
the blurb on the journal's website is very strong:
Quote:
displayed brain activation to Chinese linguistic elements that precisely matched that of native Chinese speakers
(my emphasis)
The same part of the brain, the same level of activity... it's very, very significant.
If there was any finer resolution, I don't think we'd be able to interpret the differences with our current understanding of neurology....
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