Check Out Your Brain

Language barriers and cultural differences are a way of life in Beijing. Ask for pork without bones in the US and you get meaty tenderloin, do the same thing in Beijing and you’re stuck with pork intestine. Beijing Normal University is currently looking at linguistic differences between native Chinese and English speakers in an attempt to ascertain how deeply language shapes our brains.

We had a chance to chat with the study’s principal investigator Liu Chao, who gave us a run down on his current research.

“I’m really interested in how language impacts on our minds” Liu explains. “All social science is cultural. I look at it from a scientific angle and [see] how language distinguishes these two different cultures.”

For his study Liu uses “kin-terms” (mother, father uncle, aunt etc) to study language differences and takes images using magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) of the brains of native English and Chinese speakers to show how deeply language affects us.

In English there are a total of 15 “kin terms,” whereas in Chinese there are 33, offering a more complex familial structure. In English the term “uncle,” for example, applies to all male siblings of your parents, but in Chinese you have “father’s older brother” (bofu), “father’s younger brother” (shufu) and “mother’s brother” (jiufu).

For the study Liu will focus on how these terms light up different and specific areas of the brain, but even for those that aren’t scientifically inclined the study offers some interesting food for thought. How much is language and culture hard-wired into our brains and does this account for some of the differences that come up on a day to day basis?

Expats can participate in this study going on through October 25 and come away with a look into the science behind cultural differences, as well as images of their own brain. Liu mentions, “I had five English speakers yesterday and they really like [getting to bring home images]. One said ‘I can put it on Facebook’.”

Native English speakers that wish to participate in the study can contact Liu Chao by phone 18911121354 (Leon) or e-mail Liuchao@umich.edu