Monthly Archives: June 2015

“Parlez-vous anglais?” I find myself saying this phrase in almost every interaction I have with a French speaker–ordering food, asking for directions, shopping. The answer I dread occasionally follows, “Non…” The first thought that comes to mind is “I should have kept up with French in elementary school.” Then I resort to my next resource: my hands. Hand gestures not only help me communicate but help me understand what the other person is saying. Over my past two weeks in France, much of my French vocabulary stems from these gestural experiences.

This resource came in “handy” (pun intended!) when I found out, after returning home from a group project meeting at 1am, that my room key deactivated. I went to the security guard in my dorm and said, “Bonsoir, Parlez-vous anglais?” His reply: “Non…” I proceeded to try to tell him through hand gestures and pantomime that my card does not work. He responded back to me in rapid French. Surely, the puzzled look on my face cued him to speak slower and provide some supplemental help: gestures. I understood and still remember nearly all the words he said after that cue.

Cité Universitaire – Where I live!

Why did I understand and can now remember the words the security guard said? In a study done by Mayer et al. (2015), researchers found that self-performed gestures enhance learning a foreign language. The study supports the cognitive neuroscience theory known as multisensory learning, a concept that “attributes the benefits of enrichment to recruitment of brain areas specialized in processing the enrichment” (Mayer et al., 2015).

How the human brain most effectively learns foreign languages still puzzles many researchers. Typical in-classroom settings use verbal learning techniques to teach new languages; however, Mayer et al. (2015) investigated the benefits of enriched learning methods, such as pictures and gestures, as compared to learning methods without enrichment, verbal learning. While they found learning with self-performed gestures more effective than learning with pictures, both enriched approaches benefitted the learner more than the utilization of strictly verbal learning.

Mayer et al. (2015) conducted the research by having two experimental groups. In the first experiment, 22 German adults, split into groups of seven or eight to simulate a classroom learning environment, learned foreign language words under three conditions. The participants first learned words by watching a large projection screen where a person performed gestures symbolic to the word’s meaning and then repeated the gesture. The second condition utilized the photo enrichment approach, where participants looked at a picture projected on a large screen and then, as the picture was presented a second time, traced a line on the picture with their finger in the air. The third condition acted as a control condition, where participants learned words with no enrichment.

My experience with the security guard somewhat mimicked the gestural enrichment condition of Experiment 1. As the security guard said to me, “Je” (pointing to himself), “donne” (pantomiming giving me something), “vous” (pointing to me), “un clé” (holding up the new key card), “fin” (crossing his hands), “après une jour” (distinguishing with his finger today versus tomorrow). As he made these gestures, I tried to follow him to make sure I understood what he was saying. Surely enough, I did. Even better, almost a week later, I remember the meaning of those words!

In the study, Mayer et al. (2015) confirmed the benefits of enriched learning through functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) of the brain. After a week of learning foreign language words under the three conditions, the researchers collected brain images measuring blood-oxygenation-level-dependent (BOLD) responses, a method of fMRI to observe activity in the brain or other organs, while they presented the participants with auditory foreign words and asked them to select the correct translation on a response screen.

For translated words learned with gesture enrichment, the fMRI images show brain activity in the biological motion superior temporal sulcus (bmSTS), an area sensitive to perception of others, and motor areas of the brain. For translated words learned with picture enhancement, the fMRI images show brain activity in the lateral occipital complex (LOC), an area of visual-object sensitivity.

A) LOC (Lateral occipital complex) BOLD responses
B) bmSTS (biological motion superior temporal sulcus) BOLD responses
C) Correlation of gesture and picture enrichment benefit
Figure S2 – Mayer et al. (2015)

In further analysis of the fMRI images, Mayer et al. (2015) found significant correlations between gesture and picture enrichment with distinct brain activity in sensory and motor areas as compared to neuronal activation for words learned without enrichment. The data show that using the gesture enrichment benefited the learner more than the picture enrichment; however, both enrichments benefited the learner more than no enrichment.

Mayer et al. conducted a second experiment where another 22 German adults learned foreign language words under the three enrichment conditions, but participants did not imitate the gesture or trace the picture, thus excluding a motor component. Photo enrichment benefitted the learner more than gesture, in this case; however, looking at the study as a whole, gesture enrichment enhanced learning the most.

Experiment 1 and 2 results demonstrating the benefits of enriched learning approaches to foreign words
Figure S3 – Mayer et al. (2015)

Each finding of the study supported the hypothesis that implementing enriched learning methods, as compared to learning methods without enrichment, would increase correct translation of foreign language words. The study also continuously supported the multisensory learning theory in that distinct brain activity occurred in sensory and motor areas of the brain when translating foreign words that participants learned with enriched learning approaches. Not only can language teachers use the findings of this study to enhance their students’ learning but also future researchers can apply the data to better understanding learning disorders, such as dyslexia or processing issues. While overall a compelling article, I believe Mayer et al. (2015) should have tested whether being monolingual, bilingual, or polylingual prior to the study had any confounding effects on acquisition of foreign words.

My enriched learning experience with the very patient and kind security guard probably influenced why I can remember the meanings of those French words. By watching him gesture almost every word and by copying these gestures, politely of course, to internalize them, I employed both visual and kinesthetic associations to the French words, and thus, enriched my learning of these words. Hopefully I experience more enriched learning of French words… without getting locked out of my room!

Resources:

Mayer KM, Yildiz IB, Macedonia M, Kriegstein K (2015) Visual and Motor Cortices Differentially Support the Translation of Foreign Language Words. Current Biology 25(4): 530–535

After exploring Paris for two weeks, I have come to love the sights, smells and tastes of its beautiful streets. I already found my favorite routes for traveling to class and finding new restaurants. I know where to go to find a quiet garden to study in, or a quaint little restaurant to have the most amazing gnocchi dinner. As I continue to wander around, my understanding of the layout of the city is coming together to form a cohesive picture. As any naïve tourist would report, I felt like a natural Parisian after my first successful solo excursion on the metro. And as that same naïve tourist would inevitably soon discover, I was not nearly as good at navigating as I assumed.

On one of my first days in Paris, I was lucky to be able to spend the afternoon with my boyfriend who was touring around Europe. At the end of the day, I wanted to go to a small restaurant in Montmartre that I visited over three years previously. I assumed I would easily be able to figure out the way once we got to Montmartre.

Patrick and me at the Louvre

When we arrived at the metro line to go up to Montmartre, we found that it was closed, and a sign directed us to the next stop along the same line. We walked over and to our frustration, that stop was closed as well, with a sign directing us back down to where we had come from. Not ready to be discouraged, we decided to get on a different line at that station, and try to make connections until we were near our destination. Over an hour later, we found ourselves standing on an unfamiliar street, without wifi or any real idea of where we were. We oriented ourselves to walk north, since we had no better plan for how to begin.

All of our stops through Paris! The green dot shows the restaurant in Montmartre, the yellow dot shows the metro stop we got off at, and the blue dot shows where I started and ended my day. The red dots are all of the stops along the way.

Upon reflection, I realized that the only reason I managed to eventually eat dinner that night, was because of my ever-resourceful hippocampus. Well known for its role in memory consolidation, the hippocampal formation is now recognized to be highly involved in spatial navigation, in part due to the presence of grid cells and place cells (Jacobs, et al., 2013). Oscillations in place cell firing occur in a cycle called the theta cycle, to help orient oneself in space (Wikenheiser & Redish, 2015). Unlike place cells, which only fire for very specific locations in space, grid cells in the entorhinal cortex represent space in a triangular coordinate system (Jacobs, et al. 2013). Many research studies have explored the presence and function of place and grid cells in rodents, bats, and primates. One study showed that rats have a hippocampal cognitive map, representing specific objects in specific locations, and only secondarily focusing on object identity (Manns & Eichenbaum, 2009).

The hippocampus and the entorhinal cortex are both part of the hippocampal formation.
http://www.nature.com/nrn/journal/v12/n10/fig_tab/nrn3085_F1.html

In a recent study, researchers directly obtained electrophysiological recordings from humans while they were undergoing treatment for epilepsy (Jacobs, et al. 2013). The subjects performed a virtual spatial learning task in between clinical procedures. The subjects used a joystick to navigate a virtual environment, and during testing they needed to travel directly from one object to an invisible goal object. Microelectrodes placed in the subject’s brain recorded neural activity throughout the task. The data provide evidence that humans, just like other mammals, have an allocentric spatial cognitive map, complete with grid cells and place cells. This means the location of one object is defined in relation to the location of others.

All of these data help to explain my journey to Montmartre. As I pictured myself walking through the area that I wished to go, my hippocampus fired to simulate the future, goal-directed action (Wikenheiser & Redish, 2015). Just as your place cells fire to represent where you are, they can also fire as you “replay” an experience in your mind. When I found the train platform closed, my interconnected hippocampus likely communicated with the reward center of my brain in the ventral striatum to link the failed expectation to the place (van der Meer, & Redish, 2009). Once I started navigating through the highly unfamiliar area, the neurons in my hippocampus and entorhinal cortex must have fired in an effort to link novel stimuli to spatial context. Evidence suggests that my instinct to “walk north” was because exploration relies heavily on grid-cells with direction sensitivity (Jacobs, et al. 2013). As the scenery around me started to become more familiar, specific cells throughout my hippocampal formation responded to locations, landmarks, and directions that triggered unique firing patterns (Jacobs, et al. 2013). Once I arrived at my final destination, my hippocampal neurons would have fired to help many areas of my brain realize that this restaurant was familiar, and that I should soon expect a reward in the form of delicious French food.

Well worth the journey

I am looking forward to many more adventures through Paris, and I now know much more about how my hippocampus can dependably orient me in space. I also learned that I probably should start carrying a map.

References

Jacobs J, Weidemann CT, Miller JF, Solway A, Burke JF, Wei X, Suthana N, Sperling MR, Sharan AD, Fried T, & Kahana MJ, (2013). Direct Recordings of grid-like neuronal activity in human spatial navigation. Nature Neuroscience. 16(9):1188-1190

Manns JR, & Eichenbaum H, (2009). A cognitive map for object memory in the hippocampus. Learning & Memory. 16:616-624.

van der Meer MAA, Redish AD, (2009) Covert expectation-of-reward in rat ventral striatum at decision points. Front Integr Neurosci. 3:1-15.

Wikenheiser AM, & Redish AD, (2015). Decoding the cognitive map: ensemble hippocampal sequences and decision making. Current Opinion in Neurobiology. 32:8-15.

Dear Friend,

What is it about quintessential European cities that tenderly pulls at our heartstrings and calls to us? For me, it is the simple art and beauty sprinkled throughout the cities, hidden in almost every little detail. This is my second time and Paris, and after stepping out of my dorm in Cité and catching the Métro to the heart of the city, I found myself in awe while exiting the station at Saint-Michel-Notre Dame, reveling at the scene around me. As I walked around the City of Light, brimming with art and culture, I made a mental note of the places that I wanted to visit.

Finally, when the first weekend crept around the corner, some of my friends and I decided to take advantage of the leisure time we had and partake in touristy activities around Paris. After making a brief stop at the Latin Quarter to grab a quick bite, recharging ourselves, we headed to Notre Dame. Upon arrival, the hordes of people faded into the background, and I marveled at the grand façade of the cathedral before me, still standing tall and strong. It’s hard to believe that Notre Dame is over 800 years old!

The bells (though not ringing) of Notre Dame!

Upon following the throng of people into the cathedral, we were hit by a peaceful silence that really allowed us to soak in the scene encompassing us. We strolled along the pews, pausing here and there to appreciate the curves and contours crafted into the stone, scattered with a multitude of stained glass windows here and there.

The glorious Notre Dame from inside.

We spent a good thirty minutes inside the church before deciding to proceed with the tower climb. However, after waiting in the shade for a grueling hour and barely moving an inch in line, we made a quick change of plans and headed to the gothic chapel Sainte-Chapelle, a hidden gem which houses some of the most important relics of Christianity. The chapel is embedded from plain sight by the Palais de Justice and just a mere five minute walk away from Notre Dame. We were able to get inside (much faster than waiting in line for the tower!) and boy, was it rewarding. I was awestruck by the architectural beauty, though this one was different than Notre Dame’s. Stained glass windows lined every wall, detailing stories encrypted in the Bible.

Stained glass windows encompassing Sainte-Chapelle.

After seeing both Notre Dame and Sainte-Chapelle, I was intrigued by how appreciative my friends and I were of such places, and this piqued my interest, so I decided to do a little research. I came across a rising field in architecture that combines neuroscience and beauty: neuroaesthetics. Neuroaesthetics has become increasingly popular and focuses on the neural processes involved with our perception and interpretation of finding works of art aesthetically pleasing (Leder 2013). Our intuitions that explain how we feel can be reflected in physical features around us (Vartanian et al., 2013), which could explain why we all felt at peace while walking among the churches.

Appreciating the beauty of Sainte-Chapelle, while not yet knowing the mechanism of how this happens.

More recent theories involve how such architectural designs can lead to particular behavioral outcomes. After further research, I found an article regarding the effect of architectural contour lines on aesthetic judgments. The researchers hypothesized that more curvaceous structures were more likely beautiful and cause people to enter them. They further postulated reward pathways within the brain triggered judgments in response to aesthetically pleasing objects (Vartnanian et al., 2013).

In order to test their predictions, experimenters placed participants in a functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) scanner and presented images of varying contour designs. The researchers then asked participants two questions regarding the image: whether or not it was beautiful. The images portrayed rooms that had many curves (curvilinear) or straight lines (rectilinear), and within these they had either high or low ceilings and were open or enclosed spaces.

So what did this study find? Behaviorally speaking, participants rated the curvilinear spaces more beautiful and pleasant to look at than the rectilinear ones, though contour did not have any effect on approach-avoidance decisions. At a neural level, curvilinear structures activated the anterior cingulate cortex (ACC) of the brain, which previously proved its involvement in processing aesthetic images (Brown et al., 2011). The ACC, in turn, is connected reward processing via the main reward mechanism system in the brain, the orbitofrontal cortex (OFC). The findings therefore show that humans find that curvier structures are visually appealing and linked through the reward system in the brain.

How does all this research relate to the various buildings I’ve seen throughout Paris? Well, most of the interior in Notre Dame and Sainte-Chapelle were curvilinear, which explains why I felt blissful while absorbing the scene around me. That being said, we can still find rectilinear structures pleasant to view. Take the controversial pyramid outside the Louvre, for instance. Though it represents a clash between old and new, it possesses its own unique beauty.

Next architectural wonder: the Louvre!

And that takes me to where I will hopefully be heading in my next journey through Paris! After spending a day doing homework at the beautiful Jardin des Tuileries just the other day, a few of us made a quick stop to check out the Louvre. We have not been in yet, but we shall go in soon, all in due time.

That’s it for now. I’ll talk to you later!

Sincerely,

Kaavya Mandi

References:

Brown S, Gao X, Tisdelle L, Eickhoff SB, Liotti M (2011) Naturalizing aesthetics: Brain areas for aesthetic appraisal across sensory modalities. Neuroimage 58(1):250–258.

Leder H (2013). Next steps in neuroaesthetics: which processes and processing stages to study?. Psychology of Aesthetics, Creativity, and the Arts 7(1): 27-37.

Vartanian O, Navarrete G, Chatterjee A, Fich LB, Leder H, Modroño C, Nadal M, Rostrup N, Skov M (2013) Impact of contour on aesthetic judgments and approach-avoidance decisions in architecture. PNAS 110: 10445-10453.