Toronto, Ontario, Canada (AHN) – Researchers from the Rotman Research Institute at Baycrest in Toronto have established a link between bilingualism and a delay in Alzheimer’s disease symptoms. The delay could be from four to five years.
The study was based on a comparison of more than 100 patients who could speak two languages and 100 patients who could speak only one language.
Fergus Craik, one of the three authors of the study and senior scientist at the institute, explained that bilingual people have an ability to stop irrelevant or interfering information, allowing them to concentrate on relevant information only. This ability applies to language in which bilingual people focus on the language they are using and damp down on the tongue they are not using.
Craik said bilingualism does not stop brain degeneration, but provides something that compensates for the degeneration similar to what happens when older people do crossword puzzles and Sudoku to keep cognitively active.
Speaking two languages gives rise to cognitive reserve, which scientists believe is linked with increased connections in the brain between neurons. That connectivity normally declines with age.
Many Canadians are bilingual since English and French are considered the national languages. However, French is spoken more in a few provinces such as Quebec.
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