Bilingualism May Help To Protect The Brain As You Age
A new study, that was recently published in the Journal of Neurolinguistics, by researchers from the University of Montreal suggests that people are able to save more of their brain power as they age if they are bilingual.
The study suggests that bilingualism helps the brain to become more efficient with its resources and therefore helps with allocating and saving those resources as you age.
Many years of bilingualism is seen to change how the brain goes about carrying-out various tasks. The ability to speak more than one language is seen to help the brain to be able to concentrate on one piece of information without getting distracted from another and this is what helps to make the brain more economical and efficient with its resources.
Bilingualism is the ability to speak or write two (or more) different languages fluently, and it's estimated that over 50 percent of the worlds population is bilingual.
For the present study, from the University of Montreal, the researchers compared brain connections between bilingual and monolingual seniors and they asked the participants to focus on visual stimuli while trying to ignore spatial information.
Those who are able to speak more than one language, have many years of experience in practicing with trying to manage interference between two languages and therefore it helps them to become experts at selecting relevant information and ignoring whatever is unnecessary. This means that as they age, those who can speak more than one language are going to save their valuable resources because they will only be using what's necessary to perform certain tasks.
It's clear from this study that there is a strong connection between bilingualism and cognitive impact; there are benefits to be seen. And this isn't the first time either that a study has suggested that bilingualism might help to protect an aging brain. Past research has suggested that bilingualism might help to delay the onset of Alzheimer's and dementia (links posted below). Further research in this area is needed in order to better understand the potential benefits that can be derived from bilingualism.
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This is not medical advice. Posted for information Purposes Only.
Sources:
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0911604408000146
https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2017/01/170109092604.htm
http://montrealgazette.com/news/local-news/new-research-shows-being-bilingual-is-better-for-aging-brains
http://www.huffingtonpost.ca/2014/06/04/bilingualism-benefits_n_5445085.html
http://www.neurology.org/content/early/2013/11/06/01.wnl.0000436620.33155.a4
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0010945211001043
interesting post. makes alot of sense to me upvote.
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I think if you think mainly in one language most of the time, it may not be as good.
Interesting post, thanks
Great read, especially for someone that grew up in such a linguistically 'monolithic' country like the US.