I was always fascinated by studies on how the brain works. When I was a teenager I used to read over and over again the SuperInteressante’s <\/a>reports about Ivan Izquierdo<\/a>‘s researches, a pionner in the study of neurobiology and learning memory.<\/p>\n Last Friday, March 16th, I was very happy to see that neuroscience was the topic of Brazilian podcast NerdCast<\/a>. Among other interesting topics, the guest Andr\u00e9 Souza, a doctorate student in cognitive psychology, spoke about the advantages of speaking another language.<\/p>\n The part that caught my attention was when the talked about cognitive synesthesia. It’s an “ugly” phrase but it’s easy to understand. We tend to think that the perception of something can influence in the understanding of something completely different. It’s like when we turn down the volume of our car stereo when we’re trying to find an address. Has this ever happened to you?<\/p>\n Here’s what Andr\u00e9 said about people who speak more than one language, related to cognitive synesthesia:<\/p>\n … people who speak more than one language have a greater attention contro. So they are able to change among tasks more easily without stopping the other task, without having to turn down the volume of the radio to look for an address…<\/em><\/p>\n This happens due to constant training:<\/p>\n … when someone speaks two languages, or more, they have to constantly inhit a system and put another into evidence. If they’re speaking English and want to speak Spanish, they need to focus on the knowledge of English, to speak it…<\/em><\/p>\n Besides all these benefits, studying languages is still a very good brain workout. A good reference book is Tony Buzan’s Use Your Head<\/strong>.<\/p>\n Do you speak more than one language? Do you agree with the ideas above?<\/p>\n
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