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Electronics and language

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Electronic toys are quite popular amongst the little ones. Their utilization is fairly recent. Could it be that they bring about negative consequences? Read more

You’ve got the beat?

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Is it important if you want to impress your significant other on the dance floor? Absolutely. Could it be relevant in other instances? Based on recent research, it sure seems like it! Read more

Is rhythm a dancer?

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I, without the shadow of a doubt, have been caught before speaking about motricity and cognition.

In 2013, a study out of Northwestern University, Dr. Nina Kraus showed a relationship between neural response consistency and ability to keep a beat. She has a particular interest in studying the relationships between speech, music and learning.

It is more than a 100 high school students that were studied in order to realize that there are surprising links between music, rhythmic abilities and language skills.

This study is actually the first to provide biological evidence linking the ability to keep a beat to the neural encoding of speech sounds. According to Kraus, this has significant implications for reading.

In the Journal of Neuroscience, on September 18th, a link was published between reading ability and beat keeping.

What this current study demonstrates is that accurate beat keeping involves synchronization between the parts of the brain responsible for hearing as well as movement.

Kraus adds: “rhythm is an integral part of both music and language and the rhythm of spoken language is a crucial cue to understanding”.

 When one considers that the cerebellum is highly involved in rhythm production an that it is also responsible for activating the pre frontal areas where language is produced, maybe there actually is something about these coordination exercises suggested in the context of Functional Neurology in terms of improving both movement and learning!

https://m.medicalxpress.com/news/2013-09-importance-link-ability-language-skills.html

 

 

 

To speak… to connect

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To come in contact with another individual can be perceived as a challenge, for some. When one considers that what is required can be neurologically taxing, could it be that this is more challenging for some than others?

What is required when addressing someone is twofold:

  • Looking at them straight in the eyes;
  • Speaking.

It appears to scientists that this is not so easy as one may think.

Scientists from Kyoto University, Japan, in 2016, tested 26 volunteers. When asked to make eye contact, the participants found it harder to come up with links between words.

The volunteers took longer to think of words when they were making eye contact, but only when difficult word associations were involved.

To add to this, in an effort to understand what is happening, in 2015, Italian psychologist Giovanni Caputo demonstrated that staring into someone else’s eyes for just 10 minutes induced an altered state of consciousness. Participants saw hallucinations of monsters, their relatives, and even their own faces.

A process called neural adaptation whereby our brains gradually alter its response to a stimulus that doesn’t change could explain this. You simply start to feel less of the stimulus since it is the same, ongoing.

This could be what’s happening in the case of the volunteers making eye contact.

Either way, one can think that if oculo-motor control is optimal, for once, it could be easier to engage, while thinking!

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0010027716302360

 

 

 

The cerebellum: why?

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If the cerebral cortex is the brain region that best differentiates us from other species, the cerebellum is the part that is found behind the brain and it is responsible for many important functions: 

– Coordination of movement: the cerebellum coordinates muscular activity so that the body can move fluidly.
– Balance: it receives data from the inner ear, which allows the cerebellum to contribute to keeping you upright. 
– Vision: the cerebellum allows for coordination of ocular movements.
– Motor learning: the cerebellum helps in learning tasks such as riding a bike.
– Language and humor: we don’t know how precisely the cerebellum is involved her but we do know it is.  Read more