Bilingualism Helps Prevent Alzheimer’s

In addition to having many social, psychological and lifestyle advantages, bilingualism has many benefits for the brain. Research is finding very interesting data, such as that bilingualism helps a faster recovery from a stroke and favors a delay in the onset of dementia.

In fact, more and more research points to bilingualism as a means of delaying or preventing Alzheimer’s disease. In this sense, a Canadian research ( Neuropsychologia,  2018) reveals that bilingualism makes changes in the structure of the brain that are linked to resistance to Alzheimer’s disease and mild cognitive impairment.

Previous studies found interesting facts related to this. One of them, published in the journal Neurology in 2013, reported that being able to speak two languages ​​could delay Alzheimer’s by up to 4.5 years. Its authors then suggested that bilingualism may contribute to the development of certain areas of the brain that control executive function, involving basic psychological processes such as attention.

While such studies only hinted at the hypothesis, another subsequent study has used MRI data to examine memory-associated brain regions known to be affected in Alzheimer’s disease and its precursor, mild cognitive impairment (MCI).

According to the authors, this is the first study that not only evaluated the brain areas responsible for language and cognition, but also established a link between the appearance of these areas and memory function in a group of people with Alzheimer’s disease..

Bilingualism can counteract brain damage

For the experiment, the researchers examined the brains and memory function of:

• 34 multilingual participants with mild cognitive impairment (MCI).
• 34 monolingual participants with MCI.
• 13 multilingual participants with Alzheimer’s disease.
• 13 monolingual participants with Alzheimer’s disease.

Notably, the researchers looked at the so-called medial temporal lobes, which are key in memory formation, along with the frontal areas of the brain. The researchers explain that in areas related to cognitive and language control, both multilingual MCI patients and those with Alzheimer’s had thicker cortex than monolingual ones. The results were largely replicated in our native Canadian MCI participants, ruling out immigration as a potential confounder.

Thus, this study supports the hypothesis that speaking two languages ​​is a protective factor in certain specific brain regions and may increase cortical thickness and gray matter density. Furthermore, it extends these findings by showing that these structural differences can be seen in the brains of multilingual patients with Alzheimer’s and mild cognitive impairment.

What’s more, the results contribute to the research that indicates that speaking more than one language is one of the lifestyle factors that improve cognitive reserve, a kind of drawer in which the brain’s ability to face a challenge is deposited. as a basis the knowledge of alternative ways of completing a task.

Benefits of bilingualism for the brain

It is worth making a special mention of the benefits that bilingualism has for the brain to understand in more depth why it is so important to improve its function.

• Bilingualism helps prevent dementia. Bilingual adults with Alzheimer’s take twice as long to develop symptoms as their monolingual counterparts. The average age for the first signs of dementia in monolingual adults is 71.4 and for bilingual it is 75.5.
• Bilingualism helps focus on tasks. Bilingual people show greater concentration on their tasks than their monolingual counterparts. They are more adept at focusing on relevant information.
• Bilingualism helps to switch between tasks.  Bilinguals are adept at switching between two systems in writing and structure, which makes them good at multitasking.

• Bilingualism improves cognitive skills.  Bilingual people have more acute cognitive deaths and keep their brain alert and active even when only one language is used.
• Bilingualism increases the density of gray matter. Gray matter is responsible for language processing, memory storage, and attention. Bilingual people have denser gray matter compared to their monolingual counterparts.
• Bilingualism improves memory. Learning a foreign language involves memorizing rules and vocabulary. This mental exercise improves general memory, making bilinguals better at remembering lists and sequences.
• Bilingualism improves decision-making skills.  Bilingual people tend to make more reasonable decisions. Also, they are more confident in their choices after thinking in their second language.

• Bilingualism improves knowledge of one’s own language.  Second language focuses on grammar and sentence structure, making bilingual speakers more aware of language in general. Learn a foreign language by making bilingual speakers more effective communicators, editors, and writers.

As we have just seen, being bilingual has many benefits beyond what may seem obvious, such as improving the curriculum or being able to communicate effectively when we travel abroad or receive people from other countries. It is definitely worth a try.