科学美国人60秒 左右大脑都参与了习得新语言的任务（在线收听）

This is Scientific American's 60-second Science, I'm Susanne Bard.

这里是科学美国人——60秒科学系列，我是苏珊娜·巴德。

Anyone who has tried to learn a new language as an adult knows how hard it can be.

任何一个试图学习一门新语言的成年人都知道这有多难。

And usually the ability to comprehend someone else comes before the capacity for speaking the new tongue.

通常理解他人言语的能力要先于讲新语言的能力。

“When you're listening, you can kind of gloss over the details.

“当你在听的时候，你可能会掩盖细节。

So, you may not need to understand every single syllable, every single word perfectly.”

所以，你可能不需要完全理解每一个音节、每一个单词。”

Cognitive neuroscientist Kshipra Gurunandan, of the Basque Center on Cognition, Brain and Language.

西班牙认知、大脑与语言巴斯克中心的认知神经学家Kshipra Gurunandan说。

But actually speaking a new language fluently takes much more work.

但实际上，要流利地说一门新语言需要付出更多的努力。

“Adults are not quite able to reproduce or really hear foreign sounds.”

“成年人不太能够再产出或真正听懂外语。”

Gurunandan suspected that, as we learn, the relative ease of comprehension might be explained by changes in the area of the brain that processes language.

Gurunandan怀疑，正如我们所了解到的，这种相对容易理解的现象可能是因为大脑处理语言的区域发生了变化。

It's been known since the 1800s that, for most people, the left hemisphere of the brain is essential for language.

自19世纪以来，人们就知道，对大多数人来说，大脑左半球对语言至关重要。

“However, in more recent times, we've started to realize that it's not quite that simple.”

“然而，在最近，我们开始意识到事情并没有那么简单。”

For example, when people suffer brain injuries to the left hemisphere, the right hemisphere can take over language tasks.

例如，当人们的左脑半球受到损伤时，右脑半球就会接管语言任务。

That flexibility suggests that language is not the exclusive domain of the left hemisphere.

这种灵活性表明语言并不是左脑的专属领域。

To find out if the two sides of the brain process comprehension and speech differently during language learning, Gurunandan and her team scanned the brains of Spanish-speaking volunteers who were learning either Basque or English.

为了找出语言学习过程中大脑两侧处理理解和说话的方式是否不同，Gurunandan和她的团队扫描了说西班牙语的志愿者的大脑，这些志愿者正在学习巴斯克语或英语。

“They performed language tasks in the scanner involving reading, listening, and speaking in their native and their new language.

他们在扫描仪上执行语言任务，包括用他们的母语和新语言进行听、说和读。

And then we looked at whether activation in the language regions was greater in the left hemisphere or the right hemisphere for each of the languages in each task.”

然后，我们观察在每项任务中，对于每种语言，语言区域的激活程度是左半球还是右半球更大。”

The researchers found that speaking primarily activated language regions in the left side of the brain no matter how advanced the language learner was.

研究人员发现，无论语言学习者的水平有多高，说话主要激活大脑左侧的语言区域。

But reading and listening comprehension were much more variable.

但阅读和听力理解的差异要大得多。

“In the earliest stages of language learning the native and new languages tended to activate the same hemisphere, while in the more advanced learners they activated different hemispheres.

“在语言学习的最初阶段，母语和新语言倾向于激活同一个半球，而在水平越高的学习者中，他们会激活不同的半球。”

And the switch from the same to the opposite hemispheres was largest in reading, it was slightly smaller in listening and it was non-existent in speaking.”

从同一个脑半球到相反脑半球的转换在阅读中最大，在听力中稍微小一些，而在说话中则不存在这种转换。”

The researchers reason that speech may be more constrained to the left hemisphere because it contains specialized circuits dedicated to the motor control of speech production.

研究人员认为，由于大脑左半球含有专门用于控制语言产生的运动的特殊电路，所以语言可能更局限于左半球。

“While in comprehension, you have the auditory system and the visual system, which are more bilateral—and it's possible that is why comprehension is more bilateral in the brain.”

“而在理解中，你有听觉系统和视觉系统，这两个系统是双边的——这可能就是为什么大脑的理解是更具双边性。”

The study is in the Journal of Neuroscience.

这项研究发表在《神经科学杂志》上。

Learning a new language will always be challenging, but Gurunandan says you shouldn't let that stop you.

学习一门新语言总是有挑战性的，但Gurunandan说，你不应该让它阻止你。

“Language learning is a hard skill. It's hard for everybody.

“语言学习是一项很难的技能。这对每个人来说都很难。

But it's not because of your brain plasticity.

但这并不是因为你的大脑的可塑性。

You can learn words, you can learn grammar rules, your language learning capacity is just fine.”

你可以学习单词，你可以学习语法规则，你的语言学习能力很好。”

As long as you maintain your joie de vivre.

只要你能保持生活的乐趣。

Thanks for listening for Scientific American's 60-second Science. I'm Susanne Bard.

谢谢大家收听科学美国人——60秒科学。我是苏珊娜·巴德。