Brains of Young Children Have Superpowers... Sort Of

Georgetown University Medical Center neuroscientists have noted that the brains of infants and children have a "superpower." They can use both the right and left hemispheres to do the same task, whereas adults process neural tasks in only specific areas of one part of the brain.

The findings suggested the reason why youngsters tend to recover from neural injury much easier than adults is due to this ability.

Georgetown neurology professor Elissa L. Newport, Ph.D., a former postdoctoral Olumide Olulade, MD, Ph.D., and neurology assistant professor Anna Greenwald, Ph.D., previously conducted research, and the findings coincide with a published Sept. 7, 2020, in PNAS.

The study in PNAS focused mainly on language and how children use both hemispheres of the brain to understand language or how to process spoken sentences. 

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Professor Elissa L. Newport, Ph.D., director of the Center for Brain Plasticity and Recovery, mentioned that using both hemispheres of the brain provides a mechanism that can help after suffering from a neural injury. 

If the left hemisphere of the brain is damaged right after birth (perinatal stroke), a child can still learn a language using the right hemisphere. If a child experiences damages to the other hemisphere of the brain, he or she can even use the unaffected one for the learning and development of needed cognitive skills.

(Photo: pixabay)

Left and Right Hemisphere of the Brain

According to the research of psychobiologist and Nobel Prize winner, Roger W. Sperry, which came to light in the 1960s, the brain's two hemispheres function differently. The left brain, sometimes called the digital brain,  focused more on the verbal and analytical functions. The right brain also referred to as the analog brain, is more on the visual and creative way of thinking.

Newport's study shows that in almost all adult patients who suffered a left hemisphere stroke, sentence processing was lost. This is based on both brain scanning research and clinical findings of language loss.

In very young children, sustaining damage to either hemisphere is unlikely to cause any loss of language. Even if the left hemisphere was severely affected, language ability could still be recovered. 

Regular brain scans were not able to reveal these details until now. Through the use of functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), which was analyzed in a more complex way, the researchers found that the adult lateralization pattern is not established among young children. This means during early development stages, both hemispheres of the brain function in language processing. 

Brain lateralization is the process of how information that enters the left side of the brain travels across the corpus callosum to the right side of the brain and vice versa.  

Brain networks responsible for localizing specific tasks to one or the other hemisphere start during childhood and are completed only when a child is about 10 or 11. Based on this study, Newport said they now have a better platform in understanding brain injury and recovery.

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