Every day, Anicet Mbida makes us discover an innovation that could well change the way we consume.
This Thursday, he presents a device imagined by researchers from two American universities: an earpiece capable of distributing small discharges on a nerve in the ear to learn foreign languages twice as quickly.
This morning, an innovation for those who have trouble learning languages (Chinese in particular). These are earpieces that send small shocks to learn twice as fast.
It is neither a gadget nor a torture device.
This is the result of a study by neuroscientists at the universities of Pittsburgh and San Francisco.
They have shown that by stimulating a nerve in the ear, we can boost our ability to discern sounds.
This is what is most difficult when you learn a language like Chinese.
You should know that in Mandarin, most words are only one syllable and that it is the tone that gives the meaning.
For example: "maaa" and "ma!"
can either say "mom" or "swear".
By sending a discharge on a very precise nerve (very small, we are not going to electrocute you), it turns out that we are able to distinguish the intonations and accents much better.
And above all, we are more able to reproduce them.
On Chinese students, the technique allowed the learning time to be halved.
And could it work on other languages?
Yes, and even in other disciplines: singing or learning an instrument, for example.
It has long been known how to boost learning abilities by stimulating the nerves in the brain.
Problem, so far it has been rather invasive.
Electrodes had to be implanted in the body.
Whereas with this new technique, everything works totally externally, in the atria.
Maybe one day we will learn math, physics and languages much faster thanks to little "bzzz, bzzz" in the ears.