Medical X-Press – Staff Writer 
Lilli Kimppa from the University of Helsinki studied language acquisition in the brain. Even short repetitive exposure to novel words induced a rapid neural response increase that is suggested to manifest memory-trace formation. Rapid learning of new words is crucial for language acquisition, and frequent exposure to spoken words enables vocabulary development. In her doctoral dissertation, Lilli Kimppa studied neural response dynamics to new words over brief exposure. She measured the neural activation of Finnish-speaking volunteers with electroencephalography (EEG) during auditory tasks in which existing Finnish words, and non-words with Finnish and non-native phonology, were repeated.(more)