El partido del lenguaje no sólo se juega en el cerebro | Adolfo García | TEDxRiodelaPlata — Transcript

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1. 0:00Translator: Silvina Katz Reviewer: Trina Orsic
2. 0:11This is what happens in the brain when a person moves their hand, like this.
3. 0:19The region that you see here, the motor cortex, is activated.
4. 0:26Now, the person whose brain you see
5. 0:30was not moving their hand at that point.
6. 0:35They were lying down, completely still,
7. 0:39but they had just heard the phrase “move your hand”.
8. 0:47And this is not one of those odd or unexplored cases in science.
9. 0:52In fact, right now, in your brain,
10. 0:57as you just heard me say the phrase “move your hand”,
11. 1:01even if your hands were still,
12. 1:03the same region which allows you to move your hands was activated.
13. 1:11This happens because when a person describes someone else’s movement
14. 1:16or when we read about the actions of characters in a story,
15. 1:20part of what happens so that we can understand those words
16. 1:24is that our brain simulates the actions in question.
17. 1:31Try to follow this idea.
18. 1:33When we understand language, one of the fundamental things that occurs
19. 1:38is the reactivation of pertinent body experiences.
20. 1:43It’s crazy to think that although the relationship
21. 1:49between language and the brain has been studied for over 150 years,
22. 1:52we have only become aware of this knowledge in recent decades.
23. 1:58I remember the first time that I came across this discovery.
24. 2:03It blew my mind.
25. 2:05Here we have a fundamental key to understand why language
26. 2:11is so powerful as a means of communication.
27. 2:16Your friend returns from her holidays and tells you she climbed Mount Kilimanjaro,
28. 2:23and you don’t know where Kilimanjaro is or what it’s like.
29. 2:30But you understand what she tells you,
30. 2:32not because you can see the dictionary definition
31. 2:37that’s circulating in your head of the verb “to climb”,
32. 2:41but because that verb implants in your brain
33. 2:45the movements needed to climb.
34. 2:50A few years ago,
35. 2:52we conducted an investigation using a technique called magnetoencephalography.
36. 2:59A huge device that lets you see
37. 3:02which brain regions are being activated when you carry out a task,
38. 3:07as well as the moment when those regions become activated.
39. 3:12We asked the participants to read out some words.
40. 3:17Some of those words included verbs that described body movements,
41. 3:22words such as to run, jump, clap;
42. 3:26and other words that did not describe body movements.
43. 3:30The first thing we observed is what you already know.
44. 3:34Words that describe movements of the body
45. 3:38involved increased activity in the motor cortex,
46. 3:43the part of the brain that allows us to move our bodies.
47. 3:48Yet what was most interesting
48. 3:50was that that simulation of movements in the brain
49. 3:56happened very quickly.
50. 3:58Just a few milliseconds after the words appeared.
51. 4:03In fact, this simulation was happening so fast,
52. 4:07that it occurred before the activation of other regions,
53. 4:12such as the anterior temporal lobe,
54. 4:15which allows the understanding of different kinds of concepts.
55. 4:18This suggests that when we understand language,
56. 4:22at least for certain types of words,
57. 4:25this simulation of body experiences
58. 4:29is not a decoration, it’s not something secondary.
59. 4:34It’s one of the first steps your brain takes
60. 4:37to understand what you are being told or what you read.
61. 4:42But this is not all,
62. 4:44because the language game is not only played in the stadium of our brain.
63. 4:51It is played on the playing fields of our body, our whole body.
64. 4:56In another study, we asked participants to copy words
65. 5:01with a digital pen
66. 5:03that allowed us to measure precise aspects of their hand movement.
67. 5:09The words that we gave them included verbs that described hand movements.
68. 5:15Verbs such as to hammer, greet, clap.
69. 5:20And other verbs that described the movement of feet.
70. 5:25What did we find?
71. 5:27That the physical act of writing, the real hand movement,
72. 5:32sped up when people were writing verbs that described hand movements.
73. 5:39And it dawned on us.
74. 5:41We are animals who are much more linguistic than we thought.
75. 5:47When a word describes the movement of a body part,
76. 5:52that part of the body moves differently.
77. 5:56Language reverberates throughout your body and in your everyday life.
78. 6:02Even if you don’t know it, you move the way you move,
79. 6:05in part, due to the words that surround you.
80. 6:10But we also ask ourselves, would this work the other way around too?
81. 6:16Could it be that the movement of the body impacts how we understand language?
82. 6:22To answer this question we carried out an act of scientific sacrifice.
83. 6:29We bought several Nintendo Wii consoles and had a big video games party.
84. 6:36It sounds a bit odd put that way, let me explain it better.
85. 6:39We got a group of children between the ages of eight and ten,
86. 6:43and we made them listen to different stories.
87. 6:46We tested their understanding of the stories through questioning.
88. 6:52We asked them how the characters in the stories moved
89. 6:56and also about other aspects:
90. 6:58where the events occurred and when they took place, and so on.
91. 7:04Afterwards, a video game party!
92. 7:08Over nine consecutive days, for an hour and a half each day,
93. 7:13we asked the participants to play the Nintendo Wii.
94. 7:18I don’t know if you’re familiar with it.
95. 7:20These are not your typical video games where you stay still moving your fingers.
96. 7:24These are video games of total body immersion.
97. 7:29Your whole body needs to be at the service of the game.
98. 7:34You have to dance, jump, run, kick.
99. 7:38Your whole body fully activated
100. 7:41at the service of an experience that is both playful and motivational.
101. 7:46After that great body activation, we made them listen to other stories.
102. 7:52And once again, we asked them how the characters moved
103. 7:55and other aspects of the stories.
104. 7:59What did we find?
105. 8:00That after fully engaging their bodies,
106. 8:04the children understood better the movements of the characters.
107. 8:11Their understanding of other aspects of the stories remained the same,
108. 8:15but they now understood better the characters’ actions.
109. 8:23And that made us think.
110. 8:26Could this be a brilliant new way of rethinking how we teach language?
111. 8:33Let’s consider vocabulary.
112. 8:35We usually learn words in school or in language classes
113. 8:40while sitting quietly.
114. 8:42We listen, read, do other activities, but all the while sitting down.
115. 8:48Our bodies stay out of the equation.
116. 8:52And that is such a shame.
117. 8:54And it’s not just this study,
118. 8:57but other studies conducted in actual classrooms
119. 9:03show when we learn words,
120. 9:06the learning becomes more powerful
121. 9:09if it is carried out while making congruent body movements,
122. 9:15for example, clapping when we learn the word for clapping,
123. 9:22in whatever language it might be.
124. 9:24We have a lot to gain
125. 9:27if we let our bodies take part in the learning of language.
126. 9:35(Applause)
127. 9:42And this is not the only application for this type of research.
128. 9:48We also asked if there exists a very close bond
129. 9:52between those brain circuits that let you move your body
130. 9:57and those words that describe body movements.
131. 10:01Could we not avail ourselves of the latter to find out
132. 10:06if these circuits are working efficiently or poorly?
133. 10:10And that question is relevant
134. 10:12since there are more than 9 million people in the world
135. 10:16that have brain illnesses that affect movement.
136. 10:22The most prevalent disease is Parkinson’s.
137. 10:25As with other neurodegenerative diseases,
138. 10:30it is incurable.
139. 10:32At this time, there is no cure for Parkinson’s.
140. 10:36Therefore, the best we can do
141. 10:39is to find clues, hints, evidence
142. 10:45that allow the early detection of the disease,
143. 10:50to intervene in time, lessening the impact of symptoms
144. 10:55and improving patients’ quality of life.
145. 10:59And so we return to language.
146. 11:03Multiple studies show that patients with Parkinson’s disease
147. 11:10have specific difficulties
148. 11:12understanding, generating and associating
149. 11:18verbs that describe body movement.
150. 11:21These deficits emerge at very early stages of the disease.
151. 11:26They make it possible to differentiate between distinct variants of the disease
152. 11:31and even outperform widely used cognitive assessments
153. 11:37to determine whether or not a person has a certain variant of Parkinson’s.
154. 11:44All of this can be done using inexpensive and non-invasive tools
155. 11:51that do not present risks for patients.
156. 11:59(Applause)
157. 12:05Suddenly we discover a new function for language.
158. 12:13Suddenly, words do not serve merely as a tool to communicate
159. 12:17our thoughts, what we see and feel, or to discuss and ask questions.
160. 12:24Of course they are all of these aspects,
161. 12:26but additionally, they can be a means
162. 12:29of establishing whether certain brain systems work well or not.
163. 12:39All these things I’m sharing with you, beyond their individual contribution,
164. 12:46have a great value,
165. 12:48since they reveal fundamental aspects about ourselves.
166. 12:55School, university, science itself, altogether,
167. 13:00oftentimes show us the world divided into little cages.
168. 13:06Language here, the brain over there, the body here.
169. 13:12And we get used to thinking of them
170. 13:17as a zoo of distinct phenomena.
171. 13:21Each one is isolated, kept away in its little cage.
172. 13:25But our day-to-day experience,
173. 13:27even what is occurring right now, shows us that it is not so.
174. 13:35Language, the brain and body, and many other things
175. 13:41are always integrated, combined.
176. 13:46Therefore, our daily experience is less like a tour of the zoo,
177. 13:53and more like a walk through the jungle,
178. 13:59where all these things coexist, live together,
179. 14:04and influence each other.
180. 14:07That is why we understand what happens to us more
181. 14:13when we dare break out of those cages and explore the intersections
182. 14:18between different dimensions of what we fundamentally are.
183. 14:23Language, body and brain are interlinked.
184. 14:31We don’t gain much thinking of them as separate entities.
185. 14:35And now that you know this, you have an opportunity...
186. 14:42You have the opportunity to change your notion of what language is
187. 14:47and how we communicate daily.
188. 14:51To rethink how we teach language,
189. 14:54and to revalue it as a tool
190. 14:59that can help us deal with public health problems.
191. 15:04So I hope that these words I am sharing with you,
192. 15:09as well as those we used in our experiments,
193. 15:13will have the concrete effect
194. 15:17of motivating you into action.
195. 15:23Thank you.
196. 15:24(Applause)