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  • Essay / Bilingual plasticity: Plasticity in the brain of...

    IntroductionThe brain has always had an astonishing capacity to adapt to its circumstances, an evolutionary advantage, associated with the capacity for reason and logic of the human sciences, has makes a fairly versatile organ. Research into neuroplasticity and non-synaptic plasticity can lead to a better understanding of how the brain adapts as well as how a brain functions normally. Neuroplasticity has the potential to affect brain mechanisms related to emotional, motivational, and cognitive processes (Crocker, Heller, Warren, O'Hare, Infantolino, & Miller, 2012). Another functional and extraordinary capacity of the brain is language. Language can define so much about the way we think and yet, after a brief period of time, we find it very difficult to learn new languages. It is certainly not impossible to learn a second or third language, but it appears that plasticity occurs more in children (Giannakopoulou, Uther & Ylinen, 2013). Perhaps because plasticity can arise during developmental stages when language development takes place or younger brains simply have greater plastic potential. Understanding how plasticity and bilingualism are linked can give us better insight into how the brain processes language, how these stimuli cause neuroplasticity, and how this plasticity may affect language functions. Does the development of bilingual skills cause brain plasticity? We must first try to establish a causal relationship in order to know that it is the stimuli of bilingualism that cause the appearance of plasticity. One review attempts to determine whether bilingualism can promote experience-dependent plasticity, in the same way that musicians develop increased processing in subcortical structures (Krizman, Marian, Shook, Skoe & Kraus, 2012). Specific...... middle of article ...... ps between cognition, emotion and motivation: Implications for intervention and neuroplasticity in psychopathology. Frontiers in Human Neuroscience, 7doi:10.3389/fnhum.2013.00261Giannakopoulou, A., Uther, M., and Ylinen, S. (2013). Enhanced plasticity in spoken language acquisition for child learners: Evidence from studies of phonetic training in children and adults learning English. Children's Language Teaching and Therapy, 29(2), 201-218. doi: 10.1177/0265659012467473Krizman, J., Marian, V., Shook, A., Skoe, E., and Kraus, N. (2012). Subcortical encoding of sound is enhanced in bilinguals and relates to executive function benefits. PNAS, 109(20), 7877-7881. doi:10.1073Pallier, C. (2003). Brain imaging of language plasticity in adopted adults: can a second language replace the first? Cerebral Cortex, 13(2), 155-161. Oxford University Press. doi:10.1093/cercor/13.2.155