[Health&Healing] Stay Young- Speak 2+ Languages

[Guest guest]

Comments?

Misty L. Trepke

http://www..com

 

Stay young by speaking two languages

http://uk.news./040614/80/evvot.html

 

By Maggie Fox, Health and Science Correspondent

 

 

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Two languages are better than one when it

comes to keeping the brain young, Canadian researchers have reported.

 

 

Older adults who grew up bilingual had quicker minds when tested

than people who spoke only one language, the researchers found. They

showed less of the natural decline associated with aging.

 

 

The tests of people who grew up speaking English and either Tamil or

French suggested that having to juggle two languages keeps the brain

elastic and may help prevent some of the mental slowing caused by

age, the researchers said on Monday.

 

 

Writing in the journal Psychology and Aging, Ellen Bialystok of York

University in Canada and colleagues said they tested 104 monolingual

and bilingual middle-aged adults aged 30 to 59 and 50 older adults

aged 60 to 88.

 

 

They used a test called the Simon Task, which measures reaction time

for cognitive tasks, such as recognizing on which part of a computer

screen a colored square appears.

 

 

Both younger and older bilinguals were faster on the test, Bialystok

reported.

 

 

" We compared groups of people who, as far as we could tell, are

exactly the same, " Bialystok said in a telephone interview.

 

 

" They have all had the same amount of education. They all scored

exactly the same on cognitive tests. They all perform the same on

memory tests. And they also score the same on tests in English

vocabulary. "

 

 

The difference was that half the people grew up with either French

or Tamil spoken at home and English outside. They all spoke both

languages every day from childhood.

 

 

People who were proficient in a second language acquired in school

were not included in the study to keep the effects clear.

 

 

" It's not a facility. It's not a talent, " Bialystok said. Rather it

was a case of being forced from a young age to function in two

languages.

 

 

Bialystok said her earlier study with children suggested these

circumstances force a change in the way the brain processes

information.

 

 

" In the monolingual group the differences between the younger adults

and the older adults were in line with (the decline seen) in

previous research, " Bialystok said.

 

 

" In the older bilingual they slowed down significantly less,

dramatically less. "

 

 

Bialystok has not tested people who acquired languages later in life

but believes learning new languages can only be good for the brain.

 

 

" Language is always good -- more language is always better, " she

said.