The Neural Substrates Underlying how Co-speech Gesture Affects Learning and Memory

     Nonverbal modes of communication such as gestures are used in everyday life. These gestures are usually spontaneous but are done on instinct as a regular part of conversation. Gestures can supplement communication by enhancing what is being conveyed, but they can also express emotion and revoke a response from a person’s audience. The most common gestures used are generally hand movements that are intended to supplement what is being spoken. While it may not seem apparent, gestures are a crucial component of comprehension and the extent to which they facilitate in areas of learning is still actively being investigated.      Recent research by Elizabeth M. Wakefield and Natalia Zielinski named, “Language Proficiency Impacts the Benefits of Co-Speech Gesture for Narrative Understanding Through a Visual Attention Mechanism” studied bilingual children to assess if using gestures in a child’s weaker language benefited learning outcomes. More specifically th...