What happens in the brain when you learn a new language?

At the third day of our school (which was the second day for me since I missed the first one), students from the neuroscience program came to our class and asked if anyone in our class is interested in participating in their brain research.

The students explained us that they would use an MRI to scan our brains at the beginning and the end of the semester and see the difference between these two scan images.

According to them, learning a new language actually changes your brain and they can see that visually.

Everyone got so excited in the class, not only because the research sounded so cool but because we would get paid for that too.

However, the person who will get him or her brain scanned has to be a native English speaker, right-handed, and French is supposed to be their second language, not the third nor fourth.

So I wasn't qualified for this exciting brain stuff though. :(

It's okay... I never wish to go back to be monolingual again.

But an MRI scan is expensive to get (around $800-$900 for a brain scan in Canada)so it would have been nice if I got to see my brain image at this opportunity.

Well I guess I have to wait until they start studying how learning a third or fourth language would affect in the brain.

Aya