Bilingualism may delay the onset of Alzheimer’s disease

According to a study from Concordia University in Montreal, being bilingual can delay the onset of Alzheimer’s disease by up to five years compared to adults who speak a single language.

Some time ago it was discovered that Bilingualism has cognitive benefits for older adults. In fact, a Concordia University study published in the journal Bilingualism: Language and Cognition shows that He bilingualism helps delay the onset of Alzheimer’s disease by up to five years compared to monolingual adults.

Researchers at this Canadian university use Neuroimaging methods for studying brain resilience in brain regions associated with language and aging. Thus they discovered that The hippocampus of bilinguals with Alzheimer’s disease was noticeably larger than monolinguals compared with age, education, cognition, and memory.

Christina Coulter doctoral student and lead author of the study notes that “There was more brain matter in the hippocampuswhich is the main area of ​​the brain responsible for learning and memory, and is greatly affected by Alzheimer’s disease.”.

To conduct the study, researchers compared the brain characteristics of monolingual and bilingual older adults who were cognitively normal, who were at risk for subjective cognitive impairment or mild cognitive impairment or who had been diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease.

They found that despite evidence of hippocampal atrophy among monolingual people with mild cognitive impairment and Alzheimer’s disease, There was no change in hippocampal volume in bilinguals along the developmental continuum of Alzheimer’s disease.

“Brain volume in the region associated with Alzheimer’s disease was similar in healthy older adults, the two risk conditions, and the Alzheimer’s disease group of bilingual participants.”explains Coulter. “This suggests that there may be some form of brain maintenance associated with bilingualism“, duck.

Brain resistance to aging

Brain maintenance, brain reserve, and cognitive reserve are the three components of brain resilience. a concept that refers to the brain’s ability to cope with changes associated with aging.

Brain maintenance is the ongoing ability to maintain its form and function as we age. Cognitive stimulation such as bilingualism is thought toas well as healthy eating, regular exercise, good sleep and good sensory health. They help protect the brain from deterioration.

Brain reserve depends on the size and structure of the brain. Brains with greater reserve allows normal functions to be maintained due to the additional volume or capacity of the medulla. even when they experience damage or atrophy due to aging, including pathological diseases such as Alzheimer’s disease.

A brain with greater cognitive reserve can use other parts of the brain than those typically associated with a specific function, such as language or memory, due to cognitive flexibility accumulated over a lifetime.

Coulter notes that they didn’t find lack of brain reserve associated with bilingualism in brain regions associated with language, and cognitive reserve in brain regions associated with Alzheimer’s disease.

“Speaking more than one language is one of many ways of being cognitively and socially active. which promotes brain health” comment Natalie Phillips co-author of the study, professor of the Department of Psychology, head of the scientific department Concordia University

(Level 1) on sensory-cognitive health in aging and dementia.

“This study was unique because could watch the possible impact of bilingualism on brain structure along the dementia risk continuum, ranging from cognitively normal people to those who are at higher risk of developing Alzheimer’s disease to those who actually suffer from the disease.– he notes.

Data from the Comprehensive Neurodegeneration Assessment and Dementia Study were used to conduct this study (KOMPAS-ND) and Consortium for Early Detection of Alzheimer’s Disease, Quebec (CIMA-Q).