At age nine?

After removing the left hemisphere from the brain, a nine-year-old learns to speak. Psychologists and neurologists are surprised because they have never met who has learned to speak so late with the help of the right hemisphere.

In the first years of life and thanks to the left hemisphere of the brain, man learns to speak. So far it was thought so. A child who has been removed from the left hemisphere learns to speak at age nine.

Because of the illness the child suffered, blood barely reached the left hemisphere and was unable to speak. He was cut to remove the damaged hemisphere and after two years speaks as well as the adult. The left hemisphere is the part of the brain with which we learn languages, but the child has had to use the right one because of the disease.

This has surprised neurologists and psychologists. So far it was thought that man, from a certain age, has no capacity to learn to speak. Brain nerve networks lose flexibility if they have not worked for years.

According to psychologists, we have the ability to learn to speak in childhood and a few years later it is lost. However, seeing what has happened to the child, experts do not walk. At the age of nine and thanks to the right hemisphere, they will have to analyze how they have learned to speak.

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Eusko Jaurlaritzako Industria, Merkataritza eta Turismo Saila