Researchers say that the amount of language children are exposed to during their early years may help shape their brain structure.
Previous studies have shown the benefits of talking to young children, and studies have shown that this can help improve their language processing skills and increase their vocabulary.
Now, the researchers say they have found a relationship between the amount of speech children are exposed to and the concentration of a substance in the brain, called myelin, that surrounds nerves and makes signals more effective.
I think the lesson is that we must talk to our children more. This is important"Lead author, Professor John Spencer, said: "Shockingly, it does shape the structure of the brain. "
In the study, published in the Journal of Neuroscience, Spencer and colleagues described how they used a device mounted inside a vest to record the amount of language that 87 children around 6 months old and 76 children about 30 months were exposed to at home.
The research team recorded 6,208 hours of language data and found that children with higher mothers were exposed to a greater amount of language and made more sounds themselves. The team then invited 84 of the children to the hospital and put them to sleep in a particularly quiet room.
Spencer said"Once the kids were asleep, we basically tiptoed like ninjas to pick them up, put them on the cart, and send them to the MRI room. The team used an MRI scan to measure the amount of myelin in the child's brain. "
As the brain develops, so does the amount of myelin. However, the team found that for 30-month-old infants, more language was associated with more myelin in language-related pathways in the brain.
In contrast, for a 6-month-old baby, the greater the volume of talking, the lower the concentration of myelin.
While the latter came as a surprise, one possible explanation, Spencer said, is that the influence of language depends on the stage of development of the brain.
When you're six months old, more input is good. But at this point, your brain is developing on a massive scale, and new neurons are growing in large numbers"He said. "Therefore, the input may help prolong the anagen phase of the brain.
But Spencer points out that at 30 months of age, the brain is in a different state. "Now, it starts pruning some of the cells to grow, forming specific connections, and that's what the myelin sheath does. So, now the input starts to help in the formation of myelin structures. "
The researchers added that the association was stronger in both age groups, at least in the right hemisphere of the brain, and that the association was stronger in children of highly educated mothers.