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By LAURAN NEERGAARD, AP Medical Writer Lauran Neergaard, Ap Medical Writer
Fri Feb 18, 4:08 pm ET
WASHINGTON Mastering a second language can pump up your brain in ways that
seem to delay getting Alzheimer's disease later on, scientists said Friday.
Never learned to habla or parlez? While the new research focuses mostly on the
truly long-term bilingual, scientists say even people who tackle a new language
later in life stand to gain.
The more proficient you become, the better, but "every little bit helps," said
Ellen Bialystok, a psychology professor at York University in Toronto.
Much of the study of bilingualism has centered on babies, as scientists
wondered why simply speaking to infants in two languages allows them to learn
both in the time it takes most babies to learn one. Their brains seem to become
more flexible, better able to multitask. As they grow up, their brains show
better "executive control," a system key to higher functioning as Bialystok
puts it, "the most important part of your mind."
But does that mental juggling while you're young translate into protection
against cognitive decline when you're old?
Bialystok studied 450 Alzheimer's patients, all of whom showed the same degree
of impairment at the time of diagnosis. Half are bilingual they've spoken two
languages regularly for most of their lives. The rest are monolingual.
The bilingual patients had Alzheimer's symptoms and were diagnosed between four
and five years later than the patients who spoke only one language, she told
the annual meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science.
Being bilingual does nothing to prevent Alzheimer's disease from striking. But
once the disease does begin its silent attack, those years of robust executive
control provide a buffer so that symptoms don't become apparent as quickly,
Bialystok said.
"They've been able to cope with the disease," she said.
Her work supports an earlier study from other researchers that also found a
protective effect.
What is it about being bilingual that enhances that all-important executive
control system?
Both languages are essentially turned on all the time, but the brain learns to
inhibit the one you don't need, said psychology professor Teresa Bajo of the
University of Granada in Spain. That's pretty constant activity.
That's not the only area. University of British Columbia psychologist Janet
Werker studies infants exposed to two languages from birth to see why they
don't confuse the two, and says bilingual babies learn very early to pay
attention better.
Werker tested babies in Spain who were growing up learning both Spanish and
Catalan. She showed the babies videos of women speaking languages they'd never
heard English and French but with the sound off. By measuring the tots'
attention span, Werker concluded that babies could distinguish between English
and French simply by watching the speakers' facial cues. It could have been the
different lip shapes.
"It looks like French people are always kissing," she joked, while the English
"th" sound evokes a distinctive lip-in-teeth shape.
Whatever the cues, monolingual babies couldn't tell the difference, Werker said
Friday at the meeting.
But what if you weren't lucky enough to be raised bilingual? Scientists and
educators know that it becomes far harder to learn a new language after
puberty.
Partly that's because adults' brains are so bombarded with other demands that
we don't give learning a new language the same attention that a young child
does, Bialystok said.
At the University of Maryland, scientists are studying how to identify adults
who would be good candidates to master a new language, and then what types of
training are best. Having a pretty strong executive control system, like the
lifelong bilinguals have, is among the good predictive factors, said Amy
Weinberg, deputy director of the university's Center for Advanced Study of
Language.
But people don't have to master a new language to benefit some, Bialystok said.
Exercising your brain throughout life contributes to what's called cognitive
reserve, the overall ability to withstand the declines of aging and disease.
That's the basis of the use-it-or-lose-it advice from aging experts who also
recommend such things as crossword puzzles to keep your brain nimble.
"If you start to learn at 40, 50, 60, you are certainly keeping your brain
active," she said.