The Importance of Learning a New Language

Today you’ll learn how the language we speak leaves a unique pattern in our brain’s wiring, about proof that people 3,000 years ago on an island in the Mediterranean were using hallucinogens, and how bad our memories actually are, and why. 

Find episode transcripts here:https://curiosity-daily-4e53644e.simplecast.com/episodes/brain-language-ancient-hallucinogens-unreliable-memory

Brain Language   

• “Your brain wires itself to match your native language.” by Elise Cutts. 2023.
  • https://www.sciencenews.org/article/brain-wires-native-language-neurons
• “Native language differences in the structural connectome of the human brain.” By Xuehu Wei, et al. 2023.
  • https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1053811923001015
• “Your brain wires itself to match your native language.” by Elise Cutts. 2023.
  • https://www.sciencenews.org/article/brain-wires-native-language-neurons
• “Native language differences in the structural connectome of the human brain.” By Xuehu Wei, et al. 2023.
  • https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1053811923001015

Ancient Hallucinogens 

• “Hair analysis reveals Europe’s oldest physical evidence of drug use.” by Bruce Bower. 2023.
  • https://www.sciencenews.org/article/hair-europe-oldest-evidence-drug-use
• “Bronze-age people took hallucinogenic drugs in Menorca, study reveals.” n.a. 2023.
  • https://www.theguardian.com/science/2023/apr/07/bronze-age-people-hallucinogenic-drugs-menorca-study
• “Direct evidence of the use of multiple drugs in Bronze Age Menorca (Western Mediterranean) from human hair analysis.” by E. Guerra-Doce, et al. 2023.
  • https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-023-31064-2

Unreliable Memory

• “Human memory may be unreliable after just a few seconds, scientists find.” by Nicola Davis. 2023.
  • https://www.theguardian.com/science/2023/apr/05/short-term-memory-illusions-study

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