04/09/2024
Being bilingual supercharges a baby's brain:
A study from the University of Washington reveals that babies raised in bilingual environments develop crucial cognitive skills, such as decision-making and problem-solving, before they even begin to speak.
The research tested 16 babies — half from English-speaking households and half from bilingual English- and Spanish-speaking households — by exposing them to a variety of speech sounds. Using magnetoencephalography (MEG) to monitor brain activity, researchers found that babies from bilingual homes showed increased activity in the prefrontal and orbitofrontal cortex, areas responsible for executive functions.
Lead author Naja Ferjan Ramírez explained that these results suggest bilingual babies are getting early practice in executive function tasks. Co-author Patricia Kuhl added that bilingual babies remain more "open" to the sounds of new languages, which is highly beneficial for their brain development.
This early cognitive advantage carries into adulthood, as numerous studies have shown that bilingual individuals possess stronger executive functions than their monolingual peers.
