El cerebro bilingüe: La neurociencia del lenguaje

by Albert Costa

Una fascinante aproximación al funcionamiento del bilingüismo en el cerebro humano y cómo este adquiere y procesa el lenguaje.
Todos estamos interesados en el lenguaje y nos hemos preguntado alguna vez cómo el cerebro humano lo adquiere y procesa. Pero, ¿cómo conviven dos lenguas en un mismo cerebro y qué implicaciones tiene esa convivencia?

Para entender el funcionamiento del lenguaje el bilingüismo es fundamental. ¿Cómo consiguen los bebés expuestos a dos lenguas diferenciarlas? ¿Son las trayectorias de aprendizaje diferentes entre bebés bilingües y monolingües? ¿Cómo se deterioran las dos lenguas tras un daño cerebral?

En este fascinante libro, Albert Costa busca arrojar luz sobre estas y muchas otras cuestiones a la vez que fomenta la curiosidad del lector acerca de uno de los aspectos más fascinantes de la ciencia cognitiva: el lenguaje.

ENGLISH DESCRIPTION

Genres: Nonfiction, Linguistics, Science, Language, Psychology, Neuroscience, Audiobook

256 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2017

Reviews

[Petra X]

Currently reading the book. I don't have anything better to do. Update I remember reading in one of Oliver Sacks books of a professor who could no longer read English. However, he could read Hebrew (written right-to-left). So he read books in Hebrew but wrote in English although he couldn't read what he'd written back. I wonder if having a stroke and losing one language means you would lose all language, or retain one that has a considerably different structure?
____________________

My two cousins grew up speaking Spanish, English and Arabic at home, Hebrew and French in school. Neither were particularly academic but both got into university by passing lots of language exams! My uncle was British, a doctor and an observant Jew. He married his nurse, a Spanish Roman Catholic (not observant). The wedding was really great - she had a monsigneur in the family, we had a rabbi. The monsigneur said something really not politically correct these days - Thank God there are no Protestants here and we can all have a drink! Avelina decided to convert to Orthodox Judaism rather than the reform for the wedding and they went off to live in Israel.

They lived in the French Quarter of Jerusalem, and had a Muslim, Arab-speaking nanny because they wanted the children to be exposed to all religions and to speak Arabic. My uncle spoke mostly English to them and my aunty mostly Spanish. School was in Hebrew, but they taught French and English as foreign languages.

I have a cousin-by-marriage who speaks 16 languages, learned Mandarin in two years and has worked as a translator. Her father was an importer and they travelled and lived in many countries. She is terribly asthmatic and because of the steroids couldn't have children, so she went in to languages in depth enough to become a UN translator.

In the hospital I go to see my doctor, the Bumrungrad I go there because it is the world's 9th best hospital and very cheap. And you don't have to wait more than half an hour even if you don't have an appointment. in Bangkok, when I was an inpatient they sent me the customer service lady to see if everything was ok. She was Mongolian and spoke perfect English, also Arabic (a lot of patients are from Saudi Arabia) and about 10 other languages too. I am good at menus, can translate from many languages, i like to know what I'm eating when I go travelling, but I can't say more than please and thank you and how much in hardly any of them.

There are many tribes and nations in Africa that are fluent in three or four languages, more than two is quite usual, I wonder if that is addressed in the book?

If this book is about how children who are bilingual think, what, I wonder does it have to say about all these multi-lingual people who have spoken many languages since childhood?

I keep finding and ordering interesting books. I've got at least 300 I own and haven't read. Plus the bookshop!

[Warwick · Rating 3 out of 5]

Many years ago, I went to Monet's famous gardens at Giverny, northwest of Paris, to interview their new head gardener who – quel scandale – was an English guy originally from Merseyside. The thing is, he'd been living and working in France for about twenty-five years at this point, and seemed slightly disconcerted by my attempts to speak to him in English. ‘How does it feel when it gets to eight o'clock and you have to let the public in?’ I asked him. ‘Oh, it's very recompensing,’ he said, ‘a very recompensing moment.’

Such flashes of Frenglish were a sobering reminder of something that Albert Costa calls ‘first-language attrition’, one of the many curious implications of living a bilingual life that are explored in this slim book. The supposed benefits or drawbacks of bilingualism are regularly called out in newspapers (and in many areas, like Costa's native Catalonia, they have political implications), so this is a useful way of getting a survey of the latest research.

Unfortunately, though, it doesn't seem to me that very many conclusive things can really be said about it. A lot of chapters here walk you through some interesting and suggestive pieces of research, only to end with words to the effect that ‘other studies have not been able to replicate these results or have shown contradictory results’.

Certainly it does appear that bilingual speakers ‘have a slower and less reliable access to the lexicon than monolinguals’, though the speed difference here is on the order of 30 milliseconds or so, something that can only be detected in a laboratory, not in actual behaviour. All of these effects also have great overlaps in the bell-curves, which means that the difference between two random monolinguals is likely to be greater than between a random monolingual and a bilingual.

This is a very neuroanatomical view of bilingualism – looking, for instance, at the real differences in brain architecture that language use can cause (bilinguals have more grey matter in certain areas, which among other things leads to an average delay in the onset of Alzheimer's symptoms of about four years). The disadvantage of this view is that you get very little discussion of the social and behavioural implications of it all – if that's what you're interested in, Marek Kohn's Four Words for Friend is much to be preferred.

There is also a hesitancy here, common in specialists writing for a general audience, over when to go into details and when to hold back. I did not always like Costa's judgement. For instance, he talks about a study into the ability of babies in bilingual homes to ‘distinguish between two phonemes in Hindi which are not contrastive in English’, but doesn't tell you what the phonemes are, which for a language book seems frustrating (it was /d/ and /ɖ/, for what it's worth). For a linguist, he is also irritatingly coy when it comes to discussing swearwords, writing sh*t and f*ck with asterisks as though we're in an American newspaper.

In the end, the main advantage of bilingualism – a point Costa forgets to make – is the fact that you understand two languages. This, of course, is something that's mainly quantifiable on the social rather than neuronal level. But if you're interested in the neurons, this book will give you a decent overview of the somewhat unsettled nature of the field.

[Radiantflux · Rating 3 out of 5]

15th book for 2020.

Albert Costa, who sadly died at the age of 48 in late 2018, was a highly regarded Spanish/Catalan researcher on bilingualism. This book is a translation of his 2018 El Cerebro Bilingüe, which summarises the then current state of cognitive science studies into bilingualism.

Changes in bilingual brains occur at an early age: by four months bilingual babies will stare longer at the lips of someone speaking then their monolingual peers, presumably in an attempt to parse phonemes better; later bilingual children, while showing a modest deficit in vocabulary compared monolinguals, also show better abilities in perspective taking and empathy.

Bilingualism is a cognitively demanding task, involving active switching between linguistic modalities, and the active suppression of the non-active language areas. When researchers force participants to name objects in quick sucession either in their native or second languages, they find a "switch cost" when they are forced switch between languages. Interestingly, this cost is not symmetric: switching from a weaker second-language is harder than switching from a first-language to a second, presumably as teh stronger language needs to be more strongly suppressed in the task.

Because bilingualism requires this sort of active suppression, it has been argued that bilinguals benefit from a particularly strong Executive Control system. Costa's review of this literature is someone dismissive, with him stating his belief that there is probably a publication bias towards publishing provocative results, with little strong evidence for a executive control advantage in bilinguals. As he points out, the executive control system is operated and strengthened by many different systems in the brain (e.g., driving) and so there is no reason to suspect that it will be particularly strengthened by the addition of bilingualism.

However, there is evidence that bilinguals do show delays in cognitive declines caused by dementia when compared with monolinguals. Here the argument is not that bilingualism limits the structural changes associated with dementia, but that bilinguals have a greater cognitive reserve that slows the progression of the disease. In one, widely reported study the age of onset of Alzheimer's disease was 71 years for monolinguals and 75 years of bilinguals—a really huge cognitive difference! However, further studies have tended to cast some doubt on the strongest reported findings, though Costa remained confident that some real effect was being seen, but likely modified by various other factors (e.g., levels of education etc).

Perhaps the most interesting research discussed in the book details the differential responses to emotion in different languages. Apparently people feel a muted affect to stimuli in their second language compared to their first—presumably as these secondary language areas are not as well tied into the emotional centres of the brain. In a series of seminal experiments Costa showed that people were less likely to make better decisions when problems were presented in their second language. Not only that but in tasks of moral reasoning people made more rational (i.e., less emotional) decisions when using their second language.

Overall, a fascinating book, that will appeal to any interested in the topic of bilingualism.

3-stars.

[Mehtap exotiquetv · Rating 4 out of 5]

Albert Costa räumt mit Mythen rund um Sprache auf. Sind Bilinguisten wirklich schlauer und können Demenz die Stirn bieten?
Interessant wird es erst als er erzählt wie das Beherrschen mehrerer Sprachen die Sprachfähigkeit beeinflusst. So ist der Redefluss und „mir-liegt’s-auf-der-Zunge“ Momente wesentlich ausgeprägter als bei Monolinguisten. Letztere schneiden in Vokabeltests sogar besser ab. Obwohl bilinguale Menschen einen Wortschatz mit bis zu 35.000 Wörtern haben - Signifikant mehr als Einsprachler. Trotzdem diese Diskrepanz.
Und im Bezug auf Demenz haben Bilinguisten tatsächlich einen Vorsprung, Demenz zu entschleunigen. 4 Jahre im Schnitt! Das liegt vor allem an der vorhandenen Dichte, die im Hippocampus und im Sprachzentrum vorhanden ist. Je mehr Autobahnen, desto länger dauert der physische Verfall der Hirn-Materie,

[Diana · Rating 3 out of 5]

The Bilingual Brain: And What It Tells Us About the Science of Language [2017/2021] – ★★★1/2

Albert Costa was a Research Professor at Pompeu Fabra University (UPF) in Barcelona, and in this short book, which was translated from the Spanish by John W. Schwieter, he explores bilingualism, the mysteries surrounding a human brain that is used “to juggle” two languages daily. “How do two languages coexist in the same brain?…What are the implications of this coexistence? and “is there anything special about being bilingual?” [2017/2021: ix], asks Professor Costa. Referring to many studies and evidence from neuro-imaging techniques, the author meditates on such topics as (i) how bilingual babies acquire languages, (ii) why some people with brain injuries lose their language abilities, (iii) what effect a second language may have on a dominant one, and (iv) how the choice of a language affects human judgement. Instead of providing convincing or concrete arguments, the book rather emphasises the awesomeness of bilinguals and the fact that many questions are still open to debate in this field. However, where Professor Costa’s essay lacks in rigour and depth, it certainly makes up in piquing curiosity and stimulating conversation.

Acquisition/Experience with Babies

In his book, Professor Costa is fascinated by “the challenges that babies face during language learning, in particular when it involves the simultaneous acquisition of two languages” [Costa/Schwieter, 2017/2021: 3]. Some surprising conclusions emerge, such as that studies show that “babies are able to discriminate between languages that sound quite different, as soon as hours after birth” (my emphasis), and “bilingual babies are able to differentiate their two languages from other languages” [2017/2021: 11, 14].“For their first six months, babies are relatively good at detecting patterns of sounds that frequently appear in a speech signal” [2017/2021: 21], writes the author. Not surprisingly, passage of time matters and the age of acquisition is very important. Later in the book, Professor Costa talks about bilingual children developing the ability to emphasise with others sooner than the control group [2017/2021: 86], and says that “acquiring a second language does not seem to have devastating effects on the use of the first one, unless (as in the case of adopted children), it (the first language) is no longer used” [2017/2021: 67].

Language-Learning Implications

I thought the book offered invaluable insights about the process of learning a language, especially for the young. Professor Costa writes: results suggest that the “social communicative interaction is fundamental to the learning of a foreign language, and that mere exposure does not seem to lead to such learning” [Costa/Schwieter, 2017/2021: 26]. In other words, “social interaction is fundamental for language acquisition” [Costa/Schwieter, 2017/2021: 25]. The book further states that “aging does not seem to affect learning new lexical items (basic vocabulary) too much”, and that “learning modifies the brain” [Costa/Schwieter, 2017/2021: 91]. “Activities that we carry out daily have an effect on brain structure. Our behaviour and learning sculpt the brain” [ibid]. “Learning and using two languages seems to have not only functional consequences, but also implications from brain structure”; “density of grey and white matter can be altered by learning a new skill”. For the effective learning of a new language, Professor Costa suggests practising that language frequently, rather than thinking about competence.

Evidence From Brain-Imaging Techniques

The book provides plenty of evidence from neuro-imagining techniques, with Professor stating that “there are more (brain) areas involved in processing a second language compared to the first. It appears that the dominant language requires fewer neuronal resources for processing” [2017/2021: 48]. The obvious explanation for this is that the brain has to work harder on something that is not automatic and probably never will be. This leads to a conclusion that “bilingual speakers require a certain overexertion during speech production compared to monolinguals” [2017/2021: 89].

Professor Costa provides many studies as examples, but only to say later that these studies’ results are not “final” and there is still much confusion about the causal relationship involved. One study clearly showed that “access to the lexicon is less efficient for bilingual speakers” when they took more time to choose the correct image or word in one experiment than their monolingual counterparts. However, I also thought that this could also be because bilinguals may be used to pausing momentarily before answering since they are never sure of what language will be required. That automatic pausing, developed since early childhood and even if lasting fractions of a second, may account for their supposedly “slower reaction” and that does not necessarily mean that “their access to the lexicon itself is less efficient”.

Supposed Benefits Conferred by Bilingualism & How Foreign Language Affects Human Judgement

There are different beneficial effects of bilingualism reported, and one study quoted in the book demonstrates that bilingualism is capable of delaying “the onset of symptoms of dementia by about four years” [Costa/Schwieter, 2017/2021: 117]. The final chapters of the essay are dedicated to the topic of how the choice of a language affects human judgement and principles. For example, allegedly, an instruction given in a foreign language leads to a more rational and logical answer on the part of a recipient. On the other hand, if that instruction is formulated in a native language, the response tends to be more emotive and less logical. Professor Costa gives all sorts of explanations for this state of affairs, but does not mention one of the most obvious ones – a foreign language is often learnt in an academic, formal setting, where the learning is removed from emotive states like family, close friends and country of origin. This may also trigger the psychological association of a foreign language with more formal and less emotive aspects.

Despite the book’s good intentions, it does refer to strange arguments and cherry-picks its studies. Some examples are also a bit inappropriate, such as the rumour about Fernando Alonso or the references to The Godfather Part II. Albert Costa seems to be yet another author who resorts to The Godfather to keep our attention when they are so many real (and famous) bilingual people out there who would have been delighted to share their bilingual experience with everyone. It is also odd that the author does not mention trilingualism or quadrilingual people whose numbers are not as rare nowadays as they once were. The situation is undoubtedly much more interesting and complex with regards to the study of people who can speak more than two languages.

👅 The Bilingual Brain can be described as a short essay from an expert in the field which packs interesting information. However, it also frustrates often and its conclusion of bilinguals being amazing people does not move us an inch closer to uncovering the mystery for which we picked up the book in the first place.

[Lourens · Rating 3 out of 5]

Idk of ik nog tel as bilingual als ik both engels en nederlands niet meer beheers;

but that was part of the reason this book piqued my interest. Out of a meriad of conclusions about bilingualism, two stood out for me:

* It is easier (i.e. there is less mental resistance) to mix a foreign language into our native tongue than the other way around. The hypothesis for why has to do with inhibition. When learning a foreign language, your brain actively inhibits you from expressing yourself in your first language. This control is never learned for your first language, so once you become fluent enough in the new language, words seep through. This rings very true to my personal experience: my Dutch is littered with English, but I rarely use Dutch words when speaking English.

* We have a lesser emotional response to words in a foreign language compared to our first language. And since much of our cognitive biases are the consequence of subconscious emotional reactions, common biases such as loss aversion and the conjunction fallacy are less pronounced in a second language. Imagine all the second language immigrants, a competitive edge over their peers...

Costa does a great job conveying his enthusiasm for the field, but I do feel as though this book came a bit too early to be the definitive book on the topic. Many of the effects of bilingualism seem to have just been brought to light, and a more top-down conclusion (á la system-1 vs system-2 in Kahneman) is still lacking. Maybe in a couple years, if the science converges onto a neat conclusion.

EDIT: Since writing this review, I've learned that Albert Costa passed away in 2018, two years before the release of the English translation of this book. In light of this, the criticism in my last comment is a bit insensitive. I can wholeheartedly say this book is great testament to his lifetime of research, and I'm sure will inspire many to continue his work!

[Yuliya Yurchuk · Rating 3 out of 5]

Spoilers!

Що робить мова, а особливо мови, з нашим життям? Чи впливає білінгвізм на наш мозок, а головне – на нашу поведінку? Поділюся деякими фактами, які підготувала на наш сімейний книжковий клуб (від нового року ми ввели традицію раз на місяць виділяти вечір і говорити виключно про прочитане, це працює 😎).

🙀 Виявляється, ми homo sapiens просто дивовижні створіння (ви не сумнівалися, я знаю, але я тут про мову), адже можемо розрізнити усі звуки усіх існуючих мов! Уявіть! Ви запитайте, а звідки ж тоді акценти і т. п. Я, наприклад, просто не чую різниці в деяких звуках шведської, які чує моя дитина, не кажучи вже, що я їх просто не можу відтворити (логічно, не чуєш – то і не відтвориш). Може, я якийсь збій в природі людства? Слава Богу, ні! Відповідь проста: можемо ми розрізнювати ці всі звуки лише до року, потім ця здатність притупляється, причому дуже різко і швидко. Уже до другого року життя ми практично так призвичаюємося до рідної мови, що перестаємо чути нюанси звуків, з якими не стикаємося (от вам і «щелепа не та»). Але діти, які ростуть з кількома мовами, цю здатність розрізняти численну кількість звуків не втрачають, тобто вони її втрачають до інших мов, але усі звуки мов, які вони чують, залишаються у їхньому арсеналі назавжди! Навіть якщо життя складається так, що вони перестають чути якусь з мов (наприклад, якщо дитину всиновили чи удочерили і вона не має доступу до мови, яку чула з народження, її мозок реагує на звуки цієї мови, навіть якщо вона цю мову не розуміє, але звуки мозок «впізнає»).

🕵️ Як же співіснують різні мови в одному мозкові? Тут цікаво те, що в мозкові усі мови існують одразу і одночасно. Вони потрапили в мозок і все, вони накопичуються в одному місці, тобто практично в тих самих ділянках мозку - сіра речовина відповідає за ці резерви. Коли ми хочемо щось сказати на певній мові, то мозок робить дуже складну операцію: усі наші мови активізуються і мозок має за тисячні секунди вибрати з кількох варіантів слів на різних мовах один і приглушити усі інші. Інколи мозок гальмує і ми вибираємо слово іншою мовою, бо мозок не встиг приглушити все інше і видати саме те слово і тією мовою, яку ми потребуємо. Саме через це всі ми стикаємося з ситуаціями, що слово крутиться на язиці, а ми все не вимовимо, що хочемо. Чим більше мов у нас робочих, тим більше слів у нас ось так крутиться, і тому бувають гальмування, паузи, і «збій налаштувань» (це не ми такі тупі, а просто вибір у нас занадто великий). Для мозку все одно, чи ви знаєте 20 тис слів українською і 10 тис англійською, для нього це 30 тис слів, з яких він обирає. Ви лише уявіть, які у вас запаси, якщо усе додати і дивитися на всі мови, як один великий резервуар знань і слів! (Тобто ми молодці, ви зрозуміли!)

👩‍🎓 Саме тут починається найцікавіше! Навіть якщо на вибір слів у нас може йти на тисячну долю секунди більше часу, ніж у монолінгвів, ці «мовні накопичення» добряче тренують мозок і його пластичність. Через те, що білінгви (особливо, якщо це білінгвізм з народження) постійно мусять переключатися не лише з мови на мову, але і на різних носіїв цих мов (мама – українська, тато – англійська, садочок/школа – шведська… ви зрозуміли логіку), то в дитини швидше розвивається ще й здатність ставити себе на місце іншої людини. Саме так, дослідження показують, що білінгви здатні до більшої емпатії (це проте не каже, що монолінгви до цього не здатні, просто емпатичність скоріше і раніше розвивається саме у дітей-білінгвів). Так само, як дитина вчиться переключатися з мови на мову, вона вчиться переключатися на місце однієї людини чи іншої, і цим розвивається і психологічна гнучкість (це пояснює, звідки у нашої дитини така вроджена «дипломатичність» 🙂).

👩‍🏫 Це правда, що білінгвам легше вивчити ще інші мови. Це відбувається тому, що мозок уже натренований переключатися з мови на мову, тобто в мозкові уже є натреновані зв’язки, які відповідають за придушення однієї мови і переключання на іншу (звісно, і навчання сприяє, якщо ви на одній мові вивчили що таке підмет, присудок, ви і на іншій розберетеся, куди і що ліпити, особливо, якщо мови однієї групи і ви можете нанизувати нові знання на хорошу базу).

👩‍🔧 Взагалі вивчення різних мов впливає на розвиток і сірої і білої речовини в мозку, тобто і ділянок, відповідальних за певні когнітивні здібності і за нейронні зв’язки між різними ділянками. Хоч головне питання залишається в тому, чи ці всі зміни в мозкові впливають на зміни в поведінці? Тут дуже різні результати досліджень, але є певні висновки, які вказують, що таки є кореляція між тим, як білінгвізм (або знання багатьох мов) впливає на структуру мозку і відображаються на поведінці. Так, наприклад, багато досліджень показують, що білінгвізм покр��щує нашу увагу. Щодо уваги, вчені здійснювали дослідження і з малюками, які ще не вміли говорити (але які росли в білінгвальній родині), і з дорослими різних вікових категорій, і всі ці групи показали, що здатність уваги (концентрації і невідволікання) у білінгвів була більшою порівняно з групами монолінгвів. Вчені це списують на те, що у білінгвів краще розвинена саме біла речовина, тобто нейронні зв’язки.

👩‍🎤 Думаю, всі ви чули, що білінгвізм чи вивчення іноземних мов може пригальмувати прихід Альцгеймера і т.п. Питання в тому, чи це правда? Насправді і так і ні (як завжди в науці). Дослідження показують, що мозок з часом руйнується (brain deterioration) в усіх, незалежно від того, скільки мов ти знаєш, тут більше від генетики залежить, ніж від знання мов. Але різниця виявилася колосальною, коли подивитися, чи ця руйнація відображається на поведінці і когнітивних здібностях. У білінгвів запас часу між фактичною руйнацією і поведінковими наслідками складає 4 роки, тоді як у монолінгвів, як виявилося, такого часу нема: руйнація почалася – і почалися збої в когнітивних здібностях і в поведінці. Тобто, якщо ми і не уникнемо умовного «Альцгеймера», ми відтягнемо на 4 роки прояви його в поведінці і наших здібностях (до речі, тут цікаво, що багато досліджень в різних точках світу сходилися саме на цій цифрі – 4 роки). Знову ж таки вчені вказують на роль розвинених нейронних зав’язків і білої речовини, яка впливає на розвиток «когнітивного резерву» (congnitive reserve), і саме цим пояснюють таку затримку у 4 роки – ми можемо просто пожинати плоди нашого резерву, хоча мозок уже почав руйнуватися, та резерв нам допомагає жити ще 4 роки і не відчувати руйнації на поведінковому рівні. Найцікавіше, що для розвитку нейронних в’язків нам не потрібно декламувати Шекспіра чи Шевченка щодня (хоча чому б і не зайнятися таким благородним когнітивним розвитком?) Мозку все одно, на якому рівні ми опанували мови, для нього головне сам жест переключування! (такий невибагливий орган цей мозок!)

😻 І останнє: так як мова є дуже емоційно навантажена стихія, то від того, якою мовою нам поставлені задачі, залежить, як ми будемо приймати рішення. Тому якщо перед вами дуже важка задача, і в гру вступають емоції, почуття, страсті (одним словом), то спробуйте сформувати задачу іноземною мовою. Для прийняття рішень в дію включиться раціо, а почуття матимуть меншу силу. Пам’ятаєте, як у Канемана про мислення швидке і повільне? Сформована іноземною задача наблизить вас до повільного мислення. Тут були теж дуже цікаві результати про те, що навіть задачі, які включають важкий моральний вибір, вели до різних рішень, залежно від того, якою мовою були сформовані ці задачі перед людиною – рідною чи іноземною. До того ж, іноземною ці рішення приймалися швидше (ось тобі і повільне мислення з швидкими результатами!)
Зате вчені замовчують, а як же тоді з ситуаціями, коли кілька мов є рідними? Взагалі саме питання ієрархій і емоційних прив’язаностей у всіх робочих мовах, особливо, якщо вони усі з дитинства, дуже цікаве, але про це вчені ще надто мало знають, тому закінчимо на цьому, як і Альберт Коста закінчує свою книгу, повністю визнаючи, що ми лише на початку великих відкриттів!

[Vinod Ravi · Rating 3 out of 5]

An informative read on how multiple languages shapes our brain functions. Short and fairly accessible, but I do wish it had gone easier on the technical/scientific jargon.

[Mark · Rating 3 out of 5]

He who does not know foreign languages knows nothing about his own. - Goethe

As someone who managed, with three years of near-total immersion to start and thirty years and counting of ongoing study, to achieve near-native conversation and university level reading fluency in a second language (Japanese), but struggle in middle age to achieve working fluency in French, I was keen to read this essay about how the study of languages affects our brains.

I wanted more from this, but Costa writes well and like a scientist: cautious, evidence-based, free of claims of "settled" science and other BS (bad science) claims for which there is some but insufficient evidence.

A few tidbits:
- Language and accent is more important than skin color for children in determining social preferences
- Language learning slows "access" to the lexicons of the original and new language(s). This is not necessarily a bad thing - there is a lot more activity in the brains of second-language learners, even when they are communicating in their first language. Language use becomes more deliberate and thoughtful.
- Bilingual speakers cannot "turn off" the language(s) that are not in use - helps explain why Japanese often comes out when I try to speak French??
- Studies suggest that bilingualism delays the onset of dementia by an average of about four years.

I was bemused by the pages of quotes and paraphrases from Thinking fast and slow in the last chapter, but there are worse topics for filler to reach 150+ pages.

[Margaret · Rating 4 out of 5]

A fascinating and illuminating book, that examines the advantages - and bilingualism seems to come with no disadvantages - of having a brain that is comfortable with more than one language. It can comfortably sort out differences, even before babies gain the ability to speak. It can aid empathy and perspective-taking. It can even delay the onset of dementia. While generally clear while discussing scientific discoveries in this area, I was left occasionally bemused. But Costa's light, and personal touch carried me forward, and his use of anecdotes illuminated ideas that might otherwise have been difficult to absorb. A good read.

[Kate · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book was essentially a literature review of bilingualism, so although it had a lot of information, it was quite scientific. It focused more on all the different experiments done concerning bilingualism and the results of those experiments. This was good to know where each conclusion about bilingual vs. monolingual people came from, but it got a bit exhausting after a time, as I cared more about the results and the conclusions we can draw from them rather than the specifics of the experiments themselves.

[Annika · Rating 2 out of 5]

I was genuinely excited to read this book. As a bilingual person myself (German and English) I always wondered how speaking two languages affects my brain and shapes my thinking.

Unfortunately, this book didn't answer my questions. This book doesn't answer anything that it is marketed for. It is marketed to the everyday person, either being bilingual themselves or interested in bilingual speakers. But it actually is a scientific paper, outlining the recent studies about bilingualism and language development.

After I got over the initial confusion that I wasn't reading a non-fiction book about bilingualism, but was actually reading a scientific paper, I read as one. But that change of perception didn't change my opinion about this book either.

As a scientific paper, the author uses a lot of technical jargon. But at the same time, however, the writing style is weirdly light and casual at points, which doesn't fit the scientific nature of the book at all. Some might enjoy this, for me, it simply is unprofessional.

Reading the title of the book and the summary, saying that it is "the first study of its kind", I thought I would learn something new. But as a bilingual person, this book seems like a joke. It might be that this scientific book proves how speaking two languages is processed in the brain. But if that is the case, science simply proved what every bilingual person already knows to be true.

Looking more at the content itself, two other aspects made me doubt that the author actually knows what he is talking about.

The first aspect is his view of the world, which must be a very weird one. Whenever he tries to make the science "more approachable" he compares whatever happens in the brain by outlining a real-life situation where your brain does exactly what he is trying to prove. He must view these situations as common, but I have never experienced any of them.

The second aspect is his view of bilingualism itself, which honestly made me angry at points. Quotes like "It is an enormous challenge to learn a foreign language [...] as adults, in many cases it is only partially achievable" and others throughout the book, where he mentions how difficult it is to learn a new language or that bilingual people are slower at recalling words, made it feel like the author is saying "don't even waste your time by trying".

[Kevin · Rating 4 out of 5]

A fascinating insight into the scientific studies done in the area of bilingualism and children's brains. As a father in a mixed language family, this was a great read. Also, my science brain loved it, but if you're not into the academics, this might be a bit much, although Costa does write in a very accessible way, it is definitely through a scientific lens.

[Samantha · Rating 3 out of 5]

*3.5

[rosie · Rating 5 out of 5]

I will preface this by saying that I am nowhere near objective when it comes to this book. I have no knowledge of neuro or biology of any sort and...I am trilingual. Everything I read in this book was immediately applied to myself. People are biased. This is a book review site. Oh well.
This was, perhaps, my best read of the year so far. It was interesting, sure, but it was also useful. Is there practical information that you can implement on a daily basis? No. But, if you are a young and anxious (or an old and anxious, we don't discriminate) bilingual who is afraid of the implications of bilingualism, this is the book for you.
English is not my "native" language, but, in Costa's terminology, it is my dominant one. I would call myself a balanced bilingual, but I am a lot more comfortable at using English than my other languages, including the one that is technically my mother tongue. Those child immigrants, am I right?
One of my most common nightmares is not being able to communicate in English. My whole life is in English, from my closest relationships to my diary entries. There is an issue, though. I live a lifestyle that most likely puts me in some danger of eventual mental deterioration (sleeping is good for you; do as I say not as I do). It's not in the family, but there is always a first for everything. You already know my question. What if I forget English? Thanks to Costa, I am no longer anxious. That's worth way more than 10 pounds. And, evidently, the senile version of me should also be able to speak shitty French and Italian. How lovely.
Of course, other studies, especially those on babies, were extremely interesting and enriching, but this was a selfish read. If you are bilingual/multilingual, I think this is a must—understanding yourself is more important than you realize.

[Ekaterina Drozdovica · Rating 4 out of 5]

I’m a bilingual. My first language is Russian, but I started learning English at 8 and by 17 I was fluent enough to study at a UK university. For the past ten years I spoke English everyday, for social and formal interactions. I also spoke Russian to my friends & family and continued reading Russian books. Some of my Russian-speaking friends have moved to the UK too, and the language we speak is a hybrid of a Russian base with English words intertwined occasionally. Sometimes we switch to English mid-sentence, and then back to Russian after another two sentences. For a Russian or English monolingual’s ear this sounds grotesque and my mother is often repulsed when she hears us.

This books was a fascinating journey into my own brain. The biggest epiphany for me was the switching cost as it explained why after a week-long stay back home or after reading a Russian book I unintentionally start speaking Russian to my British boyfriend! A few times I said “Доброе утро” right after waking up to find him looking extremely confused (I know, he really needs to learn my language too).

The switching cost is probably the reason why me and my friends often struggle to find Russian words to describe our UK lives, as bilinguals have a slower and less reliable access to the lexicon than monolinguals. I imagine it as a “language data base” in your brain, and a bilingual person simply has more data points to go through. And beyond that, sometimes there are words that cannot be translated directly. Language is one of the most complex neural structures in your brain. Languages contain collections of meanings, which create frameworks and shape perceptions. Although Costa does mention that bilingual children show better abilities in perspective taking and empathy, I felt like the theme of how languages form realities was massively underdeveloped.

Some of the benefits of bilingualism mentioned in the book were higher amount of grey matter and delay in the onset of dementia by an average of four years. This is because of the greater cognitive reserve that slows the progression of the disease.

Another fascinating theme was how speaking a foreign language can make you more utilitarian in decision-making. When people were presented the famous train dilemma, they were more likely to choose killing one person to save five when the problem was written in their second language and vice versa. The results were pretty consistent, yet scientists are yet to understand the mechanics behind this phenomena.

Overall a great book summing up the latest research on bilingualism, although I wouldn’t’ say it’s for a general reader.

[María De Felipe · Rating 4 out of 5]

Decidí leer este libro en español puesto que su autor, Albert Costa, así lo escribió. Además, creo que en un libro que trata sobre el lenguaje, es importante no perderse en traducciones.

Costa repasa de manera entretenida las mayores cuestiones acerca del funcionamiento del cerebro bilingüe. Aunque me ha parecido muy fácil de leer e interesante, echo de menos aclaraciones más precisas cuando se trata de responder a estas preguntas. Creo, no obstante, que se trata de un sesgo muy presente en autores científicos, que tienden a huir de las afirmaciones o negaciones absolutas.

Me quedo con varios "facts" como que las personas bilingües tienden a tener una reserva cognitiva mayor, que la toma de decisiones en un idioma extranjero suele ser más utilitaria y, aunque olvidemos términos en nuestra lengua materna, tendemos a tener un vocabulario más amplio.

[Tiago Rosa · Rating 4 out of 5]

Long story short, Theo nurture seems to pull him towards being empathic and a good multitasker at the cost of some performance in crossword puzzles.
There's a few cool nuggets of information that I will take with me after reading this book, and that's exactly what I wanted. From how the babies' thought process seems to differ by being bilingual, or the reduction on the egocentric bias, or the potential benefits on the executive control system as any muscle the brain needs to be exercised and juggling two languages seem to be a good way to keep it active, or the different personalities we possess in each language, or, lastly, the natural bias we have against foreign language and accents, above any physical attribute.

[Judie · Rating 4 out of 5]

Overall, I enjoy the book and learnt a few new things from the book which I, as a bilingual person, didn't realise in the past. Given I wasn't born bilingual, some facts weren't as interesting to me, but that doesn't affect me to learn from it.

Just to make it clear, if you are thinking of the book, make sure you read the scope (which is clearly written in the preview):
- It includes a lot of questions about "what's like to be bilingual" but doesn't give any tips about "how to be bilingual"
- Like the mentioned subtitle of the book, there are a lot of experiments related to languages.
- It also includes more about "being bilingual since babies" which is then expanded to "becoming a bilingual person in adulthood". (not surprising if it's based on experimental results.)

A few things that I picked up about the book:
- There are at least 40% languages in the world that are tonal.
- Although people tend to forget certain words from time to time, people only forget a language if they no longer use it.
- Learning a third language is going to be as costly (in terms of time) as learning a second language.
- However, you may gain some advantages for knowing "how to switch" languages if you are already a bilingual speaker.
- Surprising fact: Apparently, if you grow up being bilingual, you are better at putting yourself in other's shoes.
- Note: Just like different communication in the same language will lead to a different social impact, speaking different languages may lead to different ways of communication and therefore some social impact.

[Evie · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was so fascinating as a language student - thoroughly enjoyed.

[Mauricio Torres-Martinez · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great insight into the science of bilingualism. Enjoyable and thorough read...

[NoOneTheBookWorm (Narjess Chinichian) · Rating 5 out of 5]

Very nice and interesting book. It tries to explain the neuroscience experiments in a simple language while noting the potential shortcomings.
Very advisable for everyone interested in Language or Neuroscience.

[Christine Lee · Rating 2 out of 5]

The target audience of this book is a bit strange. It seems to be targeted at intellectual academic people, but does so in a strange way. It uses language that is high-acces but uses basic and childish analogies. It apologies to neuroscientists at one point, but also exclaims that it will not "bore" the reader with "details of the study". It is therefore simulatiously highly academic but also presumtious of the reader being a newbie to the brain and to language learning. Strange and confusing language led to a strange and unsatifing read.

[Alien Bookreader · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.7 Stars rounded up to 4

The content was interesting, well balanced and without a dogma to prove anything. The writing style and presentation of information however was annoying for me to read. In depth explanation below:

Content:

Albert Costa explores the topic of bilingualism and the brain in a broad scope, covering a lot of aspects rather than doing a deep dive into any one aspect. The main topics are bilingualism and it's implications for brain development and brain aging, the effects of continuous use of multiple languages (on cognitive processing, brain networks and recovering from brain damage), and how decision making can differ when people use their first language vs their second language.

Though the book is titled the "Bilingual Brain" the content also looks into related topics, like the social phenomena related to being a non-native speaker (spoiler: it's better to not have an accent than to have one if you want people to trust you and believe the things you say).

An interesting study:

“In one study, researchers explored the extent to which skin colour and language affect the decisions children make about who they want to relate to. [...] Did they choose a child with the same skin colour and foreign accent, or a child with a different skin colour and no foreign accent? It turns out that accent was the determining factor. The children preferred to interact with other children of a different skin colour as long as they were native speakers of English; more so than with children with the same skin colour but who spoke English with a foreign accent.”

The most interesting chapter in my opinion was the first one, which explores bilingualism in babies. Costa covers the research of the effect of language on infants starting from in utero to the early years of childhood. It's pretty amazing to see just how early infants recognize the language they are surrounded by, long before they start to speak. One example:

“Two-day-old babies whose mothers have spoken Spanish during the pregnancy tend to prefer to listen to phrases in Spanish even if spoken by a stranger, and those whose mothers speak English tend to prefer hearing phrases in English.”

There were also some interesting insights in the last chapter, into how people's decision making is less emotionally driven when a problem is presented in their second language with research from behavioral economics. It seems that we are worse decision makers in our first language than our second.

The author is very grounded in not exaggerating any claims the way pop science books sometimes do. With all the data presented, the author is honest in describing the limitations of the studies, variability in data, or admitting that different studies sometimes get different results (like research into the claim that bilingualism delays the onset of Alzheimers). This is a book that illuminates the preliminary findings of an expanding field of research. There is still a lot of work to be done before we can come to strong conclusions and the author is open about this.

The studies mentioned do not have any citations, which I find unfortunate because I would like to do a deeper dive into how these studies were conducted.

Writing Style

The writing style gives me the impression that the author tried to dumb everything down for the reader to the point that it's pretty obnoxious. After explaining an experiment, the author goes on to summarize the main idea again and again in simple language. Most annoyingly, the author inserts metaphors and analogies after almost every mention of a research study to simplify it for the reader.

“It is as if we’ve reached the ceiling in our use of that system and, however much we exercise it, our performance does not improve significantly. In baking terms: I cannot make a cake any better, I make it so well that no matter how hard I try, it just doesn’t get any tastier.”

The idea is clear without translating into "baking terms". If anything the cake analogy muddles his point and makes it sound like he's explaining his idea to a small child.

Another strange analogy:

“test scores that the participants obtained when they were eleven predicted their cognitive performance quite well at seventy-three, suggesting that intelligence is a fairly stable feature. Think of it this way: if a child is much taller than average when he is eleven years old, he will likely continue being so when he is in his seventies.”

This analogy is especially misfitting, since height is often NOT a stable feature before puberty. The girls who were tallest in childhood can turn out to be average or even shorter than average when their peers catch up in height. Boys are often shorter than average until they hit puberty, when they can become average or taller than average. Height is not a good analogy for intelligence.

There are several expression inserted throughout the book that muddle his explanations. Some examples:

“As the saying goes, ‘a bird in the hand is worth two in the bush”
“It’s much like the saying ‘in for a penny, in for a pound.”
“Ask and you shall explore, right?”

I don't understand what any of these expressions mean. One or two of these would be ok but these kinds of metaphors, analogies and expressions are inserted so often that I just found them distracting. The data and analysis of the data would be much more clear.

Overall it was a good read because of the content. The writing style lowers the quality of the book but despite that it's an interesting read.

[Julia]

Dry as a bone and full of technical jargon.

[Solvia · Rating 5 out of 5]

Le pondré 5 estrellas si apruebo el trabajo, sorry not sorry.

[Boško · Rating 5 out of 5]

I liked it! I am a somewhat of a language nerd and I wondered a lot how it works. Now, I could learn some of these things. The book is light to read, but doesn't skip the science stuff. There are some, but not too many studies cited. All of them are interesting!

** Spoilers ahead **

You know about that myth that bilingual people are smarter than the monolingual ones? Not true. In fact, the monolinguals have on average wider vocabulary in that one language, but the bilinguals know more words in all of their languages. However, there are many other advantages of being bilingual: more cognitive reserve in the brain which leads to delay of neurodegenerative diseases such as Alzheimers, better control in shifting focus and many intangibles such as - knowing a damn language and speaking to more people! Our preference to a person speaking in our language and even our dialect is shown to be stronger than the age, sex or race. Think about that one :)

[Mabel · Rating 3 out of 5]

More technical than I expected but considering the title... The last few chapters were the most interesting and also the part about losing a language (first language attrition).

- Propensity for intuitive and emotional decision making in "first" language vs logical for second language and less risk aversion
- It's more taxing to "channel switch" languages back to first language than to a second language (switching cost)
- People are more likely to believe what's said by speakers with native accents
- First language attrition - broadly better able to grasp the language than others
- Bilingual speakers are better able to ignore or separate "distractive" information - in studies, participants had to isolate information that displayed misdirections alongside it

[Rita P Smits · Rating 5 out of 5]

Albert Costa does exactly what he promises to do in this book: to explain facts about bilinguals and how their brain works compared to monolinguals, always backed up by scientific studies conducted in a reliable setting and manner. Moreover, he covers the subject from childhood to old age, and does so with an incredible writing ease and delightful humor. I was sad when I learned he has passed away, as I wish he could have lived to hear additional praise on his very deserving work.

I recommend this book to anyone with an interest on the subject, and especially the narration of Luis Soto (awesome reading) if you happen to listen to the audiobook!

[Alberto · Rating 4 out of 5]

Es un libro fácil de leer, se lee relativamente rápido, aunque no pierde el rigor científico. Es el resumen de sus 20 años de trabajo y me ha aportado algunas ideas nuevas y ha reforzado otras ideas que intuía que eran así. Creo que vale la pena leerlo