Knowing a second language develops mental capabilities that help reducing the risk of dementia as we age, says a Canadian study presented yesterday at the annual conference of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) – in progress in the city of St. Louis, Missouri.
Being bilingual or learn another language in adulthood has positive effects on the brain, alleviating the mental deterioration, said Ellen Bialystok of York University in Toronto, during a presentation of the study.
“Studies made on some older adults show that bilingualism may have a protective effect against Alzheimer’s disease”, she said.
According to the study – conducted on 211 patients affected by Alzheimer’s, of which 102 were bilingual and 109 were monolingual – the disease was diagnosed more than four years later in people who speak more than one language than in people that speak only one language.
For Mrs. Bialystok, the co-author of the study, this better way of coping with the illness is better explained by the fact that bilingualism keeps brain activity at a higher level. “For a person that has been bilingual for a longer time, speaking the second language will act as mental gymnastics which makes the brain to work more”, she explained.
“Even if we start learning another language at 40, 50 or 60 years, and it is unlikely to become bilingual, this will make a considerable difference in maintaining a healthy brain activity,” said the researcher.
Most probably, coming from Canada, a bilingual country (English and French are both official languages) has been beneficial during this study.