University of Chicago researchers say being an athlete, or merely a fan, improves language skills when it comes to discussing their sport because parts of the brain usually involved in playing sports are instead used to understand sport language.

The study was conducted on hockey players, fans and people who'd never seen or played the game, using functioning magnetic resonance imaging.

Lead author Sian Beilock says the brain boost helps athletes' and fans' understanding of information about their sport, even though at the time when people are listening to this sport language they have no intention to act.

The study, published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, shows that the brain may be more flexible in adulthood than previously thought.

"We show that non-language related activities, such as playing or watching a sport, enhance one's ability to understand language about their sport precisely because brain areas normally used to act become highly involved in language understanding," Beilock says in a statement.