Pelaburan

How does your brain work if you speak more than one language?

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A new study reveals that our brains don’t need to make much effort to process information in a language we’ve mastered since childhood. (Envato Elements pic)

If you speak numerous languages – as most Malaysians do – you would know how little effort it takes to think and express yourself in your native tongue. Now a US study, published in the journal Cerebral Cortex, shows that our brains process our first language differently from others.

Researchers from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology drew on the findings of a 2021 study, which suggested that the brain of a polyglot is less active than that of a person who speaks just one language and has to process information in their native tongue.