Our ability to learn language is already on the wane by our third year of life, according to a study of profoundly deaf children given cochlear implants to restore some of their hearing, nature.com said.
The research supports the widely held belief that there is a ’sensitive period’ for language learning, during which the capacity to acquire vocabulary and grammar is heightened.
“But I was surprised we found evidence that this sensitive period occurs so early in life,“ says Mario Svirsky, an acoustic engineer from the Indiana University School of Medicine in Indianapolis, who led the study.
Svirsky and his colleague Rachael Frush Holt looked at 96 children who had received implants during their first four years of life. The implants, which are surgically inserted in the ear, convert sound into electrical signals that the brain can interpret, allowing many deaf people to hear.
The team then tested the children’s language development and speech comprehension every few months for several years after the procedure.
Svirsky found that the rate of language learning was greatest for those given implants before they turned two. This was measured with the widely used Reynell Developmental Language Scales, which test a child’s vocabulary and understanding of grammar. Children given implants at three or four years of age acquired language skills more slowly, although Svirsky stresses that these children still benefited from the devices.

Using a mobile in rural areas tripled the risk of malignant or benign tumors compared to urban users.

Using a digital mobile phone in rural areas may pose a greater risk of developing brain tumors than it does in urban settings, a study suggests.
According to BBC News website, researchers found using a mobile in rural areas tripled the risk of malignant or benign tumors compared to urban users.
But the industry said the findings were not backed up by recent research.
The study by University Hospital in Orebro was published in Occupational and Environmental Medicine journal.
Several studies have looked into the safety of mobile phones in recent years with mixed results.
Experts in the UK have indicated there is no proven risk, but the Health Protection Agency has called for children to only use them when necessary.
The Swedish study looked at 1,400 adults aged 20 to 80 who had been diagnosed with a malignant or benign brain tumor and compared them to healthy adults living in the same area.
Using analogue or cordless phones did not have an effect, the researchers found.
But they found country residents using digital mobiles were three times as likely to develop a tumor compared to urban users, who had about the same risk of brain tumors as the general population.
For malignant brain tumors, the risk was eight times as high for those living in a rural area, but the numbers were very small, the researchers warned.
Lead researcher Professor Lennart Hardell said the cause of the increased risk seemed to be the higher emissions from the phones in rural areas because the base stations were further apart than they would be in cities and towns. Analogue phones have the same emissions wherever they are used.

Meditation is an ancient technique that is often misunderstood. Though science has explored the technique often in the last 30 years, some associate it with mind control. Others believe it belongs to the realm of cults, PsychPort.com said
But there are several reasons to add meditation to your stress-management toolbox.
Practiced correctly, it induces deep relaxation. Practiced regularly, it becomes a therapeutic process that reduces habituated stress. Practiced seriously, it offers personal insights, increased mental acuity, and harmonized brain wave activity.
Let’s look at the increasing ability to meditate effectively as a progression through levels of practice. At first, most people consider meditation to get relief from constant stress.
This is the survival level of meditation. It is reactive. Through practice, a person realizes he or she can use meditation practice proactively by meditating daily and reaping the physiological, stress-reducing benefits. This is the maintenance level.
Those who persevere and increase the frequency, duration and intensity of their practice discover that meditation gives psychological benefits also. This is the mastery level.
There are several major meditation techniques: light, sound, breath and mantra (a repeated word or sound). Most people who meditate regularly develop a practice routine that involves two or more of those techniques.
The goal of meditation practice is to stop your mental activity. You practice stopping your thinking process and then simply remain alert in clear, thoughtless awareness. This gives your mind a rest and deeply relaxes the body.
A good, basic routine for someone considering meditation for the first time or for someone wishing to reestablish practice is to meditate once a day for 20 minutes. Attempt to meditate at the same time, in the same conducive, dimly lit, quiet and private place each day. Give yourself permission to have this time for, with and by yourself.
Turn off your beeper and your cell phone, and ask others to respect your privacy for those few minutes.
What can you expect if you meditate daily for 20 minutes? If you practice correctly, you can expect to feel profoundly relaxed at the end of each session. You can expect to begin to notice your overall stress level going down. You can expect more energy, a more optimistic attitude, better sleep patterns, and more mental alertness that leads to fewer mistakes and more creativity.