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'Brain elixir': Reading Urdu prevents dementia, says report

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'Brain elixir': Reading Urdu prevents dementia, says report
By Web Desk
Published: March 5, 2015
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PHOTO: AFP

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Reading an Urdu couplet plays a significant role in brain development and prevents the onset of dementia, a recent study has suggested.

Not only a beautiful language, Urdu is also an elixir for our brains, as per a study by the Center for Bio-Medical Researches (CBMR) in Lucknow, according to the Times of India.



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The study shows reading Urdu involves predominant involvement of the frontal brain, which controls a number of cognitive functions such as decision making, the ability to determine good from bad, emotional control, coping with stress, processing information and analysing. It may also help children with learning disabilities.

The study has also been incorporated in the recent edition of international journal ‘Neuroscience Letters’.



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Uttam Kumar, a faculty member, who conducted the research on subjects from Lucknow said the conclusion was drawn on the basis of mapping the brain of subjects when they read Urdu text for a stipulated time.

“We used grapheme-phoneme mapping, which divides languages into ‘transparent’ (easy to learn) or ‘deep’ (difficult to learn). For example, Hindi and German are transparent while English and French are deep,” he said.



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“Urdu is the deepest language and therefore reading it involves more areas of the brain, which is good for mental health,” said Kumar adding.

Further, he said, “Urdu has two more advantages over others — visual complexity of letters and direction of writing.”
 
Please my request to all Pakistani members dont make this thread another bunch of crap by draging any ethintic or political issues :argh:
 
Who deals with the emotional load while reading urdu :D
 
I don't know, German is fairly hard to learn, more so than French and English. Also, I don't think Hindi is easy unless one is already familiar with an Indo-Aryan language.
Also, going by the logic of the author ("researcher"), Chinese or Japanese should be the most stimulating languages, for their scripts certainly look the most challenging.

One thing is really good for certain - multilingualism.
 
Bilingualism and multilingualism also prevents dementia. A different language makes brain more active compared to monolingualism. Different scripts also makes different parts of the brain active. May be Urdu Perso-Arabic activates more parts of the brain. Chinese language has hundreds of alphabets and it may activate more parts of the brain.

BBC News - Reading Arabic 'hard for brain'

10 September 2010 Last updated at 17:59

Reading Arabic 'hard for brain'
By Katie Alcock Science reporter, BBC News
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In Lebanon, an Arabic language festival encourages children to learn the Arabic alphabet

Scientists believe they have identified why Arabic is particularly hard to learn to read.

The University of Haifa team say people use both sides of their brain when they begin reading a language - but when learning Arabic this is wasting effort.

The detail of Arabic characters means students should use only the left side of their brain because that side is better at distinguishing detail.

The findings from nearly 40 people are reported in Neuropsychology.


The particular characteristics of Arabic make it hard for the right hemisphere to be involved”

Professor Zohar Eviatar University of Haifa.
When someone learns to read Arabic they have to work out which letters are which, and which ones go with which sounds.

It is the ability to tell letters apart that seems to work differently in Arabic - because telling the characters apart involves looking at very small details such as the placement of dots.

Professor Zohar Eviatar, who led the research team, said: "The particular characteristics of Arabic make it hard for the right hemisphere to be involved. When you are starting something new, there is a lot of [right hemisphere] involvement."

Clearer differences
The researchers looked at 37 university students. All of the students were native Arabic speakers and also spoke and read Hebrew and English.

In order to work out which side of the brain reads words, the researchers flashed words for less than a fifth of a second onto a screen - either just on the left or right, or different words on both sides.

When the eyes see something for just a short time, and it is at one side of a screen, only one brain hemisphere is quick enough to process the image.

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Children in Lebanon are being encouraged to use Arabic in school and at home
The team measured how fast and how accurate the students were when they tried to tell words apart, separately in Arabic, in Hebrew and in English.

The students used both left and right hemispheres to tell Hebrew and English words apart.

Characters in English and Hebrew are easier to tell apart because there are clearer differences between them than there are in Arabic.

Sensitivity
When they looked at the students' reading of Arabic words it gave the team a clue about why children find the language difficult to learn to read.

These Arabic-speaking adults only used their left hemispheres to tell Arabic words apart.

When the Arabic readers saw simple words with their right hemispheres, they answered randomly - they could not tell them apart at all.

"The right hemisphere is more sensitive to the global aspects of what it's looking at, while the left hemisphere is more sensitive to the local features," says Professor Eviatar. And the very small differences between Arabic characters mean that reading these characters is difficult for the right hemisphere.

The team think this may give them some clues about what readers may be doing wrong when they begin to try to read Arabic.

Both young children and adults call on both hemispheres to help them learn a new task.

And using both hemispheres is the right thing to do when reading English or Hebrew - so children's learning strategies would be fine if they were reading another language.

But previous research has found that the right hemisphere is not that good at distinguishing small details, so readers starting to learn Arabic have to learn to focus on small details, which is not natural to them, but could help them shift to their left hemispheres.

Now the researchers want to compare very new and highly expert Arabic readers in the hope of finding out what their brains are doing when they look at letters and words.

Ultimately, they would like to work out how to teach Arabic reading better to children, including helping them to tell letters apart and how to remember which sound goes with which letter.
 
I don't know, German is fairly hard to learn, more so than French and English. Also, I don't think Hindi is easy unless one is already familiar with an Indo-Aryan language.
Also, going by the logic of the author ("researcher"), Chinese or Japanese should be the most stimulating languages, for their scripts certainly look the most challenging.

One thing is really good for certain - multilingualism.
chinese and japanese are fairly easy because they don't have the joining letters thing like urdu. each letter/character is individual and once you learn all the 2000 or so characters its very easy :p their grammar is a little confusing but definitely not as difficult as urdu. once during urdu class i was thinking about how id teach a foreigner to speak urdu and then i realized how darn difficult it would be to learn the language if you're not a native/local.
 
Please my request to all Pakistani members dont make this thread another bunch of crap by draging any ethintic or political issues :argh:

How about.....Indian members make this a trash thread.....:D.....?
 
As Ghalib so eloquently said :

Rekhta keh tumhein ustaad nahin ho Ghalib

Kehteiii hain keh agleii zamaneii mein koi Butt bhiii thaa !


:smokin:

Sahiii kahaa naa @HRK @dexter ? :azn:

Waisee bhiii Lahorite Urdu is true Urdu and you Karachiites are just copying us ! :tongue:
 
It depends on what a person is actually reading. If you are reading a news paper then you get depression faster but if you are reading Urdu Novels and Urdu Shairi that would indeed control dementia because its rich and conceived beautifully.
 
'Brain elixir': Reading Urdu prevents dementia, says report
By Web Desk
Published: March 5, 2015


Uttam Kumar, a faculty member, who conducted the research on subjects from Lucknow said the conclusion was drawn on the basis of mapping the brain of subjects when they read Urdu text for a stipulated time.

“We used grapheme-phoneme mapping, which divides languages into ‘transparent’ (easy to learn) or ‘deep’ (difficult to learn). For example, Hindi and German are transparent while English and French are deep,” he said.

“Urdu is the deepest language and therefore reading it involves more areas of the brain, which is good for mental health,” said Kumar adding.

Further, he said, “Urdu has two more advantages over others — visual complexity of letters and direction of writing.”

BOLLOCKS. WELL HE WAS PAID OFF FOR THIS RESEARCH. THERE ARE SIMPLER WAYS

Dementia activities - Dementia guide - NHS Choices

Keeping up an active social life is key to helping someone with dementia feel happy and motivated. There are clubs and activities designed to help people in the same situation, which can be rewarding for both the person with dementia and their families and carers.

Activity is essential to a person's wellbeing and gives purpose and enjoyment to their day. Encouraging someone with dementia to do something creative, some gentle exercise, or take part in an activity helps them to realise their potential, which improves their self-esteemwhile reducing any feelings of loneliness. People with the early stages of dementia may enjoy walking, attending gym classes for older people, or meeting up with understanding and supportive friends.

If you care for someone who has dementia, a shared activity can also give you a chance to do something that makes both of you happier and able to enjoy quality time together.
 
As Ghalib so eloquently said :

Rekhta keh tumhein ustaad nahin ho Ghalib

Kehteiii hain keh agleii zamaneii mein koi Butt bhiii thaa !


:smokin:

Sahiii kahaa naa @HRK @dexter ? :azn:

Waisee bhiii Lahorite Urdu is true Urdu and you Karachiites are just copying us ! :tongue:

Technically we are copying Urdu from Lucknow. Lucknow is the birth place of classical Urdu. :p:
 
As Ghalib so eloquently said :

Rekhta keh tumhein ustaad nahin ho Ghalib

Kehteiii hain keh agleii zamaneii mein koi Butt bhiii thaa !


:smokin:

Sahiii kahaa naa @HRK @dexter ? :azn:

Waisee bhiii Lahorite Urdu is true Urdu and you Karachiites are just copying us ! :tongue:

Ghalib also said:

Hain dunya main aur bhi sukhun wur bohat ache,
Kehte hain dexter ka hai andaz-e-biyan aur :dirol:

How about.....Indian members make this a trash thread.....:D.....?

Jab tawako hi uth gai Ghalib,
Kyun kisi ka gila kare koi :P
 
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