NEW DELHI, INDIA, November 4, 2009: Learning Hindi, or Sanskrit or any other language of this family has an advantage over English: it exercises more areas of the brain. Scientists at the Manesar-based National Brain Research Centre (NBRC) have for the first time studied the processing of an Indian script-Devanagari- in the human brain using functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI).
English, which uses the Roman script, is alphabetic. That is, it has vowels and consonants that are written linearly from left to right. Reading English-and other alphabetic languages-involves activation of areas in the left hemisphere of the brain.
In contrast, Devanagari has the properties of both alphabetic and syllabic scripts. Scientists have found reading the language involves activation of the left and right hemisphere.
