By R. Madidaran Courtesy Ceylon Today

It is crystal clear that the language is powerful engine of human intellect and creativity, allowing for ultimate combination of words to generate an endless number of new structures and ideas out of ‘old’ ones. It has the main role in the human brain. It directs how we specify visual attention, explain and memorise events, categorise objects, distinguish smells and musical tones, present mental mathematics, make financial judgments, experience and express emotions, allow communication, which leads to exchange information, build relationships and create art.

On the other hand, the brain is a complex organ that controls thought, memory, emotion, touch, motor skills, vision, breathing, temperature, hunger and every process that regulates our body.

This three-pound organ is the seat of intelligence, interpreter of the senses, initiator of body movements and controller of behaviour. Lying in its bony shell and washed by protective fluid, the brain is the source of all the qualities that define our humanity. It is the crown jewel of the human body.

The brain is like a group of experts. All the parts of the brain work together, but each part has its own special responsibilities. The brain can be divided in to three basic units; the forebrain, the midbrain and the hindbrain.

The hindbrain includes the upper part of the spinal cord, the brain stem and a wrinkled ball of tissue called the cerebellum. The hindbrain controls the body’s vital functions such as respiration and heart rate.

The cerebellum coordinates movements and is involved in learned rote movement, when you play the violin or hit the cricket ball you are activating the cerebellum.

The uppermost part of the brainstem is the midbrain, which controls some reflex actions and is part of the circuit involved in the control of eye movements and other voluntary movements.

The forebrain is the largest and most highly developed part of the human brain. It consists primary of the cerebrum and the structures hidden beneath it.

When people see picture of the brain it is usually the cerebrum that they notice, the cerebrum sits at the topmost part of the brain and is the source of intellectual activities. It holds your memories, allows you to plan, enables you to imagine and think. It allows you to recognise friends, read books and play games.

The cerebrum is split into two halves by a deep fissure. Despite the split, the two cerebral hemispheres communicate with each other through a thick tract of nerve fibres that lie at the base of this fissure.

Although the two hemispheres seem to be mirror images of each other, they are different, for instance, the ability to form words seems to lie primarily in the left hemisphere, while the right hemisphere seems to control many abstract reasoning skills.

It is evident that the right cerebral hemisphere primarily controls the left side of the body and the left hemisphere controls the right side.

When one side of the brain is damaged, the opposite side of the body is affected for example a stroke in the right hemisphere of the brain can leave the left arm and leg paralysed.

It is a significant fact that the two hemispheres in our brain are connected by a thick bundle of nerve fibres called the corpus callosum. Those fibres, called the corpus callosum, ensure both sides of the brain can communicate and send signals to each other.

You may have even heard the term ‘GoldenBrain.’ Used to refer to people who used both side of their brain equally. This is very similar to how most people are either right handed or left handed and some people are even Ambidextrous!

However, if we use both sides of our brain, it will help improve learning and memory, the left side of the brain controls logical thinking and speech while the right side handles our imagination and spatial awareness, when we use either hand to write, we activate these two parts of the brain at once; this gives us an edge over those who only use one half.

It is high time to see the role of the brain in language processing. The Broca area is in the brain’s frontal lobe and is responsible for language processing.

Pierre Paul Broca provided the first anatomical proof of what part of the brain was responsible for what, Neuro, scientists say the Broca area can understand language through memories, meanings and emotions.

Broca’s area is associated with speech production and articulation. Our ability to articulate ideas, as well as to use words accurately, in spoken and written language, has been attributed to this crucial area.

Studying a language engages memorisation skills (learning new words and rules) as well as recalling the producing of new language in class activities. So it is no surprise that people who regularly use a second language have more powerful memories. Those are the benefits of the language on the brain.

Broca’s and Wernike’s areas are cortical areas specialised for production and comprehension of human language, respectively. Broca’s area is found in the left inferior frontal gyrus and Wernicke’s area is located in the left posterior superior temporal gyrus.

Wernicke’s area controls the ability to understand the meaning of words, Broca’s area in conjunction with the motor cortex, controls the ability to speak those words.

It Broca’s area is damaged there is a break down between one’s thought and one’s language abilities. Patients often feel that they know what they wish to say but are unable to translate their mental images and representations into words. Remembering earlier movements is also part of  Broca’s area functions.

Damage in particular areas of the brain can lead to disrupted language because the means of processing language is damaged.

This phenomenon is commonly called language disorder. Written language and spoken language differ in many ways. Injury to language centres of the brain leads to a condition called aphasia, there are different levels of impairment and the term, dysphasia refers to partial loss of language.

If the brain spilts, the messages sent to the hemispheres cause different responses, for example objects place in the left hand (Right hemisphere) object can be used but not named. Object placed in the right hand (Left hemisphere) object can be named and described immediately.

Many patients with spilt brain syndrome retain intact memory and social skills. Split brain patients also maintain motor skills that where learned before the onset of their condition and require both sides of the body for example walking, swimming and biking.

On the other hand, using only one hemisphere to engage in a task leaves the other hemisphere free to engage in other functions, this provides evidence for the advantages of brain lateralisation and demonstrates how it can enhance brain efficiency in cognitive tasks.

Anyone who undergoes hemispherectomy will have some functional limitations, for example when half of the brain is damaged, disconnected or removed, it causes weakness on the opposite side of the body.

When the left cerebral hemisphere is removed, one will lose most, but not all of their linguistic competence to speak and process complex syntactic patterns and will retain some language comprehension ability.

When his right cerebral hemisphere is removed one will find it difficult to understand jokes and metaphors.

He or she cannot use loudness and intonation as cues to whether a speaker is angry, excited or merely joking. So the right hemisphere also has a role in normal language use.

Last but not least, the brain plasticity is very important. It is the ability of the brain to modify its connections or re-write itself without this ability. Any brain, not just the human brain, would be unable to develop from infancy through to adulthood or recover from brain injury. The child hemispherectomy patients are able to reacquire a linguistic system.

Albeit delayed, but in adults the right hemisphere cannot take over linguistic functions any more.

The memory capacity of a human brain was testified to have equal to 2.5 petabytes of memory or a million gigabytes so that the average adult human brain can accumulate the equivalent of 2.5 million gigabytes of memory.

The human brain can work 24 hours a day without rest and about six minutes after the heart stops the brain essentially dies.

(R. Madidaran is a Senior Lecturer of English, British Way English Academy)

By R. Madidaran