The Basque Center on Cognition, Brain and Language (BCBL) has been trying to find answers to the questions: How do we acquire language? How do we use it for communication? And more recently, how does the brain learn a second or third language, and is there any difference learning it from birth or acquire it later on in life? Finding answers to these questions is a key focus of the work at this Spanish research center. The BCBL is situated in San Sebastian, Spain, – the heart of the Basque Country where inhabitants speak both Spanish and Basque, two languages that are completely unrelated, yet are used side by side in daily life.

For fMRI, the center chose the Siemens MAGNETOM^® Trio, a Tim (total imaging matrix) system, 3 Tesla fMRI unit for its excellent performance. As a volunteer slides into the MAGNETOM Trio, video information is fed onto a small screen above the volunteer’s head and audio is piped into the headphones. As a language test progresses, the results are recorded and displayed on a bank of computer screens. On images of incredible clarity, researchers watch different parts of the brain “light up” as challenges are posed to the volunteers, such as a series of words that are totally or partially contradictory combined with some that are not. Scientists at BCBL want to know more about which parts of the brain are activated when things “make sense” and which parts are activated when it is confused