# Quick brain question



## The_African (May 4, 2011)

I should know this but does the left brain hemisphere activate when listening to a foreign language or does the brain acknowledge a language that's completely unknown in the same way that it would regard birds chirping, drums beating, dogs barking etc?


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## Metryq (May 4, 2011)

I don't know if the left-brain/right-brain thing is real, or merely one of those urban myths—like the oft-repeated notion that we use only 10 percent of our brains. (I know some people for whom that is true.) 

Listening to a foreign language may be difficult at first because one's "ear" may not be accustomed to recognizing the patterns and sounds. I enjoy foreign language music because I _don't_ know the language. The voice then becomes another "instrument." I find that if I later start trying to learn the language, I "recognize" many words and sounds "instantly." 

Humans are creatures of symbol, and pattern recognition is how our brains work. Listen to whale song, or wolf howls long enough and you start to recognize patterns.


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## Nik (May 5, 2011)

Think of the problems tuning in to dialect: At first, it is almost a foreign language. Then, as your ear attunes, you start to pick out patterns. Comprehension may begin to follow...


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## chrispenycate (May 5, 2011)

One thing which is obvious is that the "foreign language extraction" centre of the brain is linked to the pun centre. I used to be the kind of person who would deliver a continuous stream of word play into a conversation, normally getting in a new one before most people had worked out the previous. 

Since learning to think in a second language this has dropped off, and I can just barely hold my own, and certainly not bearly.

On the other hand, editing in languages I don't understand has helped develop the pattern recognition that starts the transformation of noise into communication.


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## The_African (May 6, 2011)

As I understand it, the lyrics in a song are processed by the verbal  left brain and the instrumental is processed by the right brain. Purely  non-verbal music (not necessarily non-vocal but without words)  stimulates the right brain to a greater extent than verbal music does,  increases creativity and has some of the same benefits as meditation  (since meditation works by quieting or transcending the verbal,  talkative left brain). Does the same apply to all instrumental music  (including predictable, repetitive instrumentals that were originally intended to include lyrics, ie. instrumentalized rap or pop songs) or only  complicated instrumental music like new  age, classical and jazz? If what I understand is correct, does music  with lyrics in a completely foreign language have the same effect? Or am  I completely off entirely?


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## skeptical (May 8, 2011)

The left brain/ right brain thing is a half truth that originated due to the much cruder techniques used to study the human brain a few decades back.   Today, with much more precise measurements of brain activity, neurologists realise that activities such as language operate on both sides of the brain, and frequently in a number of separate centres.  Sometimes there is more activity on one side of the brain, but it is not exclusively left or right brain.


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## The_African (May 8, 2011)

skeptical said:


> The left brain/ right brain thing is a half truth that originated due to the much cruder techniques used to study the human brain a few decades back.   Today, with much more precise measurements of brain activity, neurologists realise that activities such as language operate on both sides of the brain, and frequently in a number of separate centres.  Sometimes there is more activity on one side of the brain, but it is not exclusively left or right brain.



I know that it is an oversimplification but is there any truth to the idea that instrumental/non-verbal music sparks creativity and has some of the same benefits as meditation?


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