From: Hara Ra (harara@shamanics.com)
Date: Fri Jul 25 1997 - 11:19:38 MDT
Derek Ryan wrote:
>
> Hara Ra (hi, Hara Ra!) writes:
>
> > Saw interesting PET scans in Science News. One of a person who learned
> > two languages as a child - same area of the brain is used for both
> > languages. Another person learned 2nd language as an adult. Two adjacent
> > areas in this brain, one for each language....
>
> Whoa! Very cool. How did they determine which area was being used? Just have
> the people speak the particular language while they've got the scanner running?
>
PET scans work by injecting glucose with some tritium atoms replacing
some of the hydrogens (correct me if I am wrong here, it's been a
while). Tritium decays to helium 3 by emitting a positron. The areas of
the brain which are active metabolize the glucose, trapping the tritium
in the tissues for a short time, so the PET is a map of metabolic
activity. A variety of ways are used to activate the areas of interest,
I would surely think speaking the target language would do here. As I
recall, the article didn't say.
O---------------------------------O
| Hara Ra <harara@shamanics.com> |
| Box 8334 Santa Cruz, CA 95061 |
O---------------------------------O
This archive was generated by hypermail 2.1.5 : Fri Nov 01 2002 - 14:44:39 MST