Scientists have discovered that infants, who hear their mother's language while in the womb, retain that language even if they never use it after birth, according to Science Daily. The unconscious brain preserves the "lost language," according to a study conducted by scientists at the Montreal Neurological Institute and McGill University's Department of Psychology.
"The infant brain forms representations of language sounds, but we wanted to see whether the brain maintains these representations later in life even if the person is no longer exposed to the language," said Lara Pierce, a doctoral candidate at McGill University and study author.
The article, "Mapping the unconscious maintenance of a lost first language," is in the Nov. 17 edition of Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS).
The study used MRI scans of female's brains, ages nine to 17, from the Montreal area, according to the study. The first group was born and raised in a French-speaking family. The second group consisted of Chinese children adopted as infants who became French-speaking with no cognizant memory of Chinese. The third group was made of girls who were fluent in both in Chinese and French.
MRIs were done while each of the groups listened to the same Chinese sounds.
"It astounded us that the brain activation pattern of the adopted Chinese who 'lost' or totally discontinued the language matched the one for those who continued speaking Chinese since birth," Pierce said, according to Science Daily. "The neural representations supporting this pattern could only have been acquired during the first months of life. This pattern completely differed from the first group of unilingual French speakers."
The study results propose that information gained at an early age is not only saved, but possibly influences the brain though out the person's lifetime. The findings also imply that studies asserting information in the brain can be overwritten or deleted are incorrect. The potential for relearning a lost language is possible, according to Science Daily.
