High School Students Learn about Language and the Brain

High School Students Learn about Language and the Brain

On June 23, 2014, ten first-year students from Yonezawa Kojokan High School attended a lecture entitled "Language and Brain" given by Senior Associate Professor Emiko Kaneko at the University of Aizu. They visited the UoA as a part of the program, "Interdisciplinary Fusion of Science" for the Super Science High Schools (SSH) Project.

The lecture deepened students' understanding of the relation between language and the brain through an explanation using concrete examples and images of experiments. All the students who attended the lecture were listening attentively to interesting topics on the mechanisms of language, such as perceptions controlled by the right brain and the left brain, and the brain structures of speakers of Japanese dialects.

Here are some impressions from students who attended the lecture:

• "I learned a lot of new things about the brain. I have always liked science and this lecture has increased my liking for science more than ever."
• "As the lecturer kindly taught one item at a time, I understood the topics very well. I was surprised to find out that the way the brain is used varies much from person to person even regarding people living in the same country."
• "The topic on dialects was especially interesting to me. I woke up to the fact that I have been unconsciously changing accents, when switching between dialects."
• "I found out that speaking languages is involved with quite difficult mechanisms and that it is amazing how human beings are designed to do so very easily."
• "The human brain is mysterious and interesting. Images of experiments shown in the lecture deepened my interest in it much more. Now I want to study how the brain works."

Several more lectures by UoA faculty members have been scheduled for the SSH Program of Yonezawa Kojokan High School.