Older adults who have spoken two languages since childhood are quicker at switching between cognitive tasks than single-language adults, a new study finds. The bilingual seniors also showed distinct patterns of brain activity not seen in monolingual participants, the researchers added.
The findings inThe Journal of Neuroscience suggest that certain mental activities benefit individuals as they age.
"This study provides some of the first evidence of an association between a particular cognitively stimulating activity, in this case, speaking multiple languages on a daily basis, and brain function," John Woodard, a researcher on aging from Wayne State University, who was not involved with the study, said in a statement.
Recent research has suggested speaking two languages could keep one's cognitive flexibility, or the ability to adapt to new, often unfamiliar, situations, from declining, something thought to happen with age.
To test the idea in an aging population, Brian Gold and his colleagues at the University of Kentucky College of Medicine scanned the brains of 30 healthy bilingual and monolingual adults ages 60 to 68. They used functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), which shows blood flow to brain regions in real time. An increase in blood flow to a specific brain region signals that region is likely becoming more active.
While their brains were being scanned, participants completed a task to measure their cognitive flexibility called a color-shape task-switching game. The participants were shown one of two possible shapes (square or circle) in one of two colors (red or blue) at the center of a screen. In some instances participants had to name the color of the flashed image, in others the shape, and in others the task switched back and forth from participants needing to indicate color to shape.
Both groups performed the task accurately, though bilingual individuals were faster than monolinguals. Even so, the brain scans suggested bilingual participants expended less energy in the brain's frontal cortex thought to be involved in such task switching, the researchers said.
"This suggests that bilingual seniors use their brains more efficiently than monolingual seniors," Gold said in a statement.
To find out when this cognitive benefit from bilingualism kicked in, the researchers ran the same experiment on younger participants with an average age of 31. As expected, younger adults were faster than older ones at completing the task. However, bilingual younger adults did no better than monolingual individuals on the task.
"Together, these results suggest that lifelong bilingualism may exert its strongest benefits on the functioning of frontal brain regions in aging."
In fact, another study showed the brains of bilingual adults functioned better and for longer after individuals developed Alzheimer's disease; the bilinguals were also diagnosed with the disease about four years later, on average, than those who spoke just one language.
So there. No matter if you speak one language or several. If the studies are correct, and I suspect they are, learning a new language will help the old gray matter. I am not nearly as adept at picking up languages as my dad was. Growing up in Quebec, I took French in school from grade 3 but you know what...by grade 11 I was still far from able to carry on a conversation. A few years after graduation the system was changed to include Immersion French and that proved to work a whole lot better. Having to work in another language has to be a better way to learn it. What French I did learn is still mostly there but a tad rusty around the edges and right down the middle. Thai is a whole matter unto itself. I don't think I do badly though I'm far from fluent.
I have always been interested n languages and am in constant beginner stages with Japanese, Spanish and Mandarin. A friend of mine in Bangkok speaks 13 eastern and western languages fluently and has a good working knowledge of another 23...well that was about five years ago so he's probably added several more by now! He teaches Thai and Indonesian...and is a jazz pianist. Is his brain working overtime or what, eh!
Whether I ever learn much more Japanese, Spanish or Mandarin is debatable but other languages show you that there is more than one right way to communicate and to me it is fascinating to be able to figure out words and sentences in another languages...probably because I have always been a huge puzzle fan.
See you, eh!
Bob
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