Our vocabulary continues to grow and expand even in adulthood. Just ten years ago, the word ‘blog’ did not yet exist – and now we no longer remember when we heard this word for the first time or when we learned its meaning. At some stage new words become just as familiar to us as words we have learned earlier. One of the areas of interest in the Academy of Finland’s Neuroscience Research Programme (NEURO) is how the process of learning new words is reflected in the function of the brain.