There has been a study in Britain on the brain structure of bilingual people and
They found learning other languages altered grey matter – the area of the brain which processes information – in the same way exercise builds muscles. People who learned a second language at a younger age were also more likely to have more advanced grey matter than those who learned later, the team said. Scientists already know the brain has the ability to change its structure as a result of stimulation – an effect known as plasticity – but this research demonstrates how learning languages develops it.
The scans revealed the density of the grey matter in the left inferior parietal cortex of the brain was greater in bilinguals than in those without a second language. The effect was particularly noticeable in the “early” bilinguals, the findings published in the journal Nature revealed. Learning languages ‘boosts brain’
Since most Indians learn multiple languages in school (I had to learn three languages, English, Malayalam and Hindi), does this mean that we have more density of the grey matter than anyone else ?
When I bragged about being pentalingual everyone told me that the effect possibly wears off and your IQ starts dropping when the number of languages goes above 2.
Ravi, That explains the PJs