Having trouble learning a language? Perhaps the experience of one Australian man will help us learn to stimulate the brain to understand language better.
Ben McMahon was in a bad car accident that left him in a coma. When he woke up, he could not speak English. Instead, he was using Mandarin Chinese. He spoke to an Asian nurse and then wrote on a piece of paper in Chinese characters, "I love my mom. I love my dad. I will recover." A few days later his use of English finally returned to him.
The 22-year-old has studied Mandarin in school, but was never really fluent in it. The coma changed that. Since his brain's transformation, with his newfound command of that language, he has been giving tours of Melbourne in Chinese as well as appearing on Chinese television shows.
McMahon is currently studying commerce at Shanghai University.
In instances such as these, neurologists believe that as the brain compensates for damage, it creates new pathways that make connections that are beneficial to the person.
