Exchanges

The brain does something curious at 10 months of age. Its produces about double the amount of neurons than before and it lasts just about 4 months. After that the signal is given to prune the brain's neurons. It will be another 10-12 years before that happens again and it will be driven by hormones when it happens at that time. At 10 months the brain needs all those cells in order to test the full range of possible sounds for the language the child is born into. After the sounds have been tested in all that babbling and after the baby is sure that (s)he has distilled the sounds from the native tongue, then the neurons are reduced in by about 1/2 and the neural network for language acquisition has been started. After the language network has been started, then the brain can concentrate on something else to develop. It trades the neurons available to keep the full range of sounds to develop whatever else in the baby's environment needs developing, keen eyesight, for example, or keen hearing.

There is a saying in English, "Life is a series of trade-offs." I know the saying originated from something else in life other than language acquisition, but what the brain does with language is a good example of the principle. When we need something, it is produced but at the cost of something else. When a stroke victim has to learn language again, it is not usually through the left hemisphere, the original location of language, but with the right hemisphere since there is no damage there. Another example is with cab drivers. The area of the brain that works with directionality is larger with cab drivers than in other people. But, to gain that directionality, something has to be traded off. So, they are weaker in speed in some area of lesser utility than the area using directions.

Had I known the trade-off principle earlier in life, I know I would have done things differently. Now I understand, which makes me more leary of being willing to pursue something because I know there will be a trade-off somewhere. There are also those times when I know exactly what would be traded off if I were to make particular decisions. I would jump at those opportunities and fully enjoy the new pursuit. Some trades are desired and are the stuff dreams and hopes are made of.