The Influx of Positive Thought

In “Scientific American” (volume 17, number 4, August/September, 2006), there is an article titled “Turning off Depression” written by David Dobbs. It is an essay about Dr. Helen Mayberg’s studies in depression and how she found the mysterious relationship between depression and the brain activities in Area 25.

I was very intrigued by her studies and had a fun read about it. Dr. Mayberg conducted experiments to test her assertions concerning the hyperactive Area 25 and its connection with severe depression. She had some healthy subjects think about sad thoughts and scanned their brains when tears fell down. The images showed depressed frontal activity and a very active Area 25.

My immediate thought shifted to: if we make certain adult subjects think positively about their second language acquisition, will there be any obvious brain activity shown in the areas of Bronca and Wernicke? And what will PET or fMRI images show? Will positive thought influence a person’s language learning in terms of neuronal activity stimulated in the specific language area in brain? How much will the positive thought affect an individual’s language study and how much positive thought is enough so as to cause relatively phenomenal changes? I would like to conduct experiments to find out answers to the aforementioned questions.

I truly admire those who are like Dr. Mayberg and hopefully it is not too late for me to dive into Cognition and Neuroscience. And of course my primary interest lies in the area of first and second language acquisitions and their relationship with brain activities. If certain depressed people respond to CBT (cognitive behavioral therapy), would it be possible that people could also respond to CBT to break the “spell” saying adults can never master another foreign language like, their counterparts, toddlers?