Language gene accounts for nearly 50% of success in learning a foreign tongue
- Researchers suggest variations in the COMT gene are responsible
- Gene affects the strength of the brain’s communication network
- Findings could be used to develop interventions that improve learning
Shivali Best For Mailonline
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While many people can easily pick up a new language, it does not come naturally to others.
But it seems that your genes could be to blame for the struggle to grasp a second language.
A new study has shown that the ability to learn a second language may be predicted by a combination of genetic and brain factors.
While many people can easily pick up a new language, it does not come naturally to others. But it seems that your genes and brain structure could be to blame for the struggle to grasp a second language
STUDYING SECOND-LANGUAGE SUCCESS
The study involved 79 first-year college students who had just arrived in the US from China.
Participants had all already passed the university’s minimum English requirement, and 44 of them entered a three-week course to further improve their English.
Researchers performed brain scans on all the students, including a control group who had also just arrived from China but did not get into the class.
They used an MRI technique called diffusion tensor imaging (DTI), which gives clues about the structure of the brain’s connections. Better structure helps signals transfer across the brain, which may lead to better learning.
The brain scans showed that within a day of the immersive English training, white matter had already begun to change.
The exposure to a foreign language also increased the connectivity of the brain’s language circuitry, which went up over the course of the three-week training, and then reversed after the training ended.
The research from the University of Washington looked at the final grades that college students received in a second-language class.
Their findings suggested that results could be predicted by a combination of genetic and brain factors.
Dr Ping Mamiya, who led the study, said: ‘We are interested in understanding why individuals learn differently, including those who perform well and those who perform poorly.’
Genetic variations of the COMT gene, and a measure of the strength of the brain’s communications network – known as ‘white matter’ – together accounted for 46 per cent of the reason for why some students performed better than others in the language class.
Dr Mamiya said: ‘Our study shows for the first time that variations of the COMT gene are related to changes in the brain’s white matter that are the result of learning.’
The study involved 79 first-year college students who had just arrived in the US from China.
All the participants had already passed the university’s minimum English requirement, and 44 of them entered a three-week course to further improve their English.
Over the three weeks, the researchers performed brain scans of all the students, including a control group who had also just arrived from China but did not get into the class.
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The scans were performed using an MRI technique called diffusion tensor imaging (DTI), which gives clues about the structure of the brain’s connections.
Better structure helps signals transfer across the brain, which may lead to better learning.
The brain scans showed that within a day of the immersive English training, white matter had already begun to change.
The researchers hope that by understanding how the environment, our genes, and our brains really work, they could develop interventions that improve learning
The exposure to a foreign language also increased the connectivity of the brain’s language circuitry, which went up over the course of the three-week training, and then reversed after the training ended.
As well as taking brain scans, the researchers also took DNA samples from the students.
Two specific forms of the COMT gene were linked to greater success at learning a second language, by altering the white matter, while a third form of the gene showed no changes in white matter.
Dr Patricia Kuhl, the co-author of the study said: ‘Humans’ abilities in learning any particular skill vary tremendously, and we want to know why.
‘Knowing why answers a basic science question about how the environment, our genes, and our brains really work, but could also lead to interventions that improve learning.’
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