加拿大麦吉尔大学科学家最近在表在《Nature Communications》上发表论文称，在婴幼儿人生早期，简单的接触到的母语，会影响在接下来的人生中，大脑如何处理来自第二种语言的声音。
在人生命的第一年，大脑十分适合通过感官收集和储存关于世界的信息。在这段时间中，大脑会适应一种特定语言的声音，并且建立起这些声音相关的神经元表征。不过，以前尚不清楚，这些早期经历是否会对神经元处理第二语言产生影响，亦或者产生什么影响。
通过功能磁共振成像扫描，加拿大科学家Lara Pierce和她的同事们，记录了43个10岁到17岁之间的未成年人，在听到法语假词（实际不存在的词，但是发音规则符合法语，例如“vapagne”或者“chansette”）时，大脑的活动。他们还记录这些未成年人在执行工作记忆任务，即当听到一个假词被重复时，被试者需要做出反应时的大脑活动情况。他们测试了三组法语流利的儿童：第一组说法语的儿童，从来没有接触过汉语；第二组是华人儿童，会说流利的汉语和法语，而法语是第二语言；第三组是在婴儿时期，被法裔的父母收养的中国儿童，只会说法语。
虽然这三组儿童执行任务的能力同样出色，大脑中被激活的部分在不同组之间却存在差异。在只会说法语，从来没有接触过汉语的儿童中，所有被认为和处理语言相关声音的大脑部位都被激活了。然而，除了在三组儿童中都激活的脑区以外，接触过汉语的儿童的大脑中，和认知控制与注意力相关的部位也出现了激活的现象。这些结果表明，在婴儿时期接触过汉语的儿童，处理法语的方式和只说法语的儿童不同。
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Past experience shapes ongoing neural patterns for language
Early experiences may establish a foundation for later learning, however, influences of early language experience on later neural processing are unknown. We investigated whether maintenance of neural templates from early language experience influences subsequent language processing. Using fMRI, we scanned the following three groups performing a French phonological working memory (PWM) task: (1) monolingual French children; (2) children adopted from China before age 3 who discontinued Chinese and spoke only French; (3) Chinese-speaking children who learned French as a second language but maintained Chinese. Although all groups perform this task equally well, brain activation differs. French monolinguals activate typical PWM brain regions, while both Chinese-exposed groups also activate regions implicated in cognitive control, even the adoptees who were monolingual French speakers at testing. Early exposure to a language, and/or delayed exposure to a subsequent language, continues to influence the neural processing of subsequently learned language sounds years later even in highly proficient, early-exposed users.