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Aging in Two Languages: Implications for Public Health
... As Antoniou et al. (2013) have reported based on extensive studies on animal models, involvement in a complex environment can influence dendritic complexity and the generation of new neurons. This can enhance cognitive function and promote the ability to compensate for impairment (Albert, 2007;Billings, Green, McGaugh, & LaFerla, 2007). For example, the benefits of environmental enrichment have been found in aged mice with AD (Arendash et al., 2004) and Billings et al. (2007) have also demonstrated a delay in the onset of neuropathology in middle-aged mice through spatial training. ...
... This can enhance cognitive function and promote the ability to compensate for impairment (Albert, 2007;Billings, Green, McGaugh, & LaFerla, 2007). For example, the benefits of environmental enrichment have been found in aged mice with AD (Arendash et al., 2004) and Billings et al. (2007) have also demonstrated a delay in the onset of neuropathology in middle-aged mice through spatial training. ...
... For example, a 4-year (Bialystok, Abutalebi, Bak, Burke, & Kroll, 2016), and more recently, 5-year (de Leon et al., 2020) delay of AD onset has been found in early bilinguals, compared to monolinguals. Some other cerebral benefits of bilingualism including enhancement of gray matter (GM) density (Della Rosa et al., 2013;Sutherland et al., 2012), increased white matter (WM) integrity (Golestani, Paus, & Zatorre, 2002) and thicker cortex have been found in bilinguals . ...
... Essas investigações sofisticadas sobre idade e cognição mostraram vantagens para crianças bilíngues em relação às funções cognitivas, reportando evidências relacionadas às várias funções, tais como: memória, atenção, linguagem e percepção BIALYSTOK et al., 2016;ZELAZO, 2004;MARTIN-RHEE;BIALYSTOK, 2008;CARLSON;MELTZOFF, 2008). Entretanto, a área que mostrou resultados mais interessantes foi a que relaciona bilinguismo e funções executivas, e é dela que tratarei nesta seção. ...
... Tais estudos, assim como os conduzidos por Bialystok e seu grupo de pesquisa, têm mostrado que crianças bilíngues apresentam melhor desempenho do que crianças monolíngues em tarefas que requerem o controle da atenção para inibir informações distratoras, porque há uma necessidade de controlar a competição entre as línguas que estão ativas no cérebro (BIALYSTOK et al., 2016;MAR-TIN-RHEE;BIALYSTOK, 2008). Segundo esses autores, as funções executivas, sobretudo os processos envolvidos na atenção seletiva e na inibição, são extensivamente praticadas pelos bilíngues no momento em que eles selecionam a língua a ser utilizada. ...
... É fato que o grau e o tipo de controle inibitório em que os bilíngues demonstram tais vantagens diferem de estudo para estudo, dependendo da tarefa e das características dos sujeitos envolvidos nas testagens. Também é fato que as maiores evidências positivas foram reportadas em estudos com crianças (BIALYSTOK, 2010; MARTIN--RHEE; BIALYSTOK, 2008) e idosos (BIALYSTOK et al., 2016), o que parece coerente, visto que são épocas de vida em que as funções executivas impactam mais, porque na primeira está começando seu desenvolvimento, e na segunda, seu declínio. Por outro lado, sabemos também que algumas pesquisas com jovens adultos não mostraram evidências significativas para bilíngues (BIALYSTOK et al., 2016), trazendo questionamentos e dúvidas sobre as pesquisas na área de bilinguismo e cognição até então. ...
As pesquisas contemporâneas relacionadas à área de bilinguismo e cognição têm sido conduzidas a partir de duas grandes descobertas. A primeira, relacionada ao processamento da linguagem, sugere que os bilíngues ativam informações sobre ambas as línguas mesmo quando usam apenas uma delas. A segunda, relativa ao processamento cognitivo, mostra que bilíngues parecem ter benefícios no desenvolvimento cognitivo devido ao desempenho diferenciado em tarefas que requerem ignorar fatores de distração e manter o foco, trocar de perspectiva e resolver conflitos (KROLL & BIALYSTOK, 2013). Este capítulo traz um breve panorama dos estudos
relacionados a bilinguismo e cognição, focando os conceitos de funções executivas e discutindo as implicações, na sala de aula, para o aluno que possui dois sistemas linguísticos, processando as informações e construindo seu conhecimento por meio de suas línguas.
BIALYSTOK, 2013).
... 114,122 Existing studies suggest two neural mechanisms, "neural reserve" and "neural compensation," by which cognitive reserve protects the brain against cognitive aging or AD pathology. [123][124][125] Neural reserve implies that specific brain regions or networks are resistant to the impact of neurodegeneration (consistent with MRI studies in bilingualism), 126 and neural compensation refers to alternative brain regions or networks recruited to compensate for degenerated brain regions in older adults 114 (in correspondence with FC studies in bilingualism). 32 It is proposed that cognitive reserve is more associated with the neural reserve in younger adults but neural compensation in older adults. ...
... Factors related to the methodology Inconsistencies in the research method and high variability in bilingualism findings have been a matter of debate in both behavioral and neuroimaging studies, 41,99,126,139 which make it difficult to compare the findings and make firm conclusions. For example, studies are different in terms of the age of classifying bilinguals into early (0, 3, 5, or 6 years) and late (6 or 12-15 years) bilinguals. ...
The past decade marked the beginning of the use of resting‐state functional connectivity (RSFC) imaging in bilingualism studies. This paper intends to review the latest evidence of changes in RSFC in language and cognitive control networks in bilinguals during adulthood, aging, and early Alzheimer's disease, which can add to our understanding of brain functional reshaping in the context of second language (L2) acquisition. Because of high variability in bilingual experience, recent studies mostly focus on the role of the main aspects of bilingual experience (age of acquisition (AoA), language proficiency, and language usage) on intrinsic functional connectivity (FC). Existing evidence accounts for stronger FC in simultaneous rather than sequential bilinguals in language and control networks, and the modulation of the AoA impact by language proficiency and usage. Studies on older bilingual adults show stronger FC in language and frontoparietal networks and preserved FC in posterior brain regions, which can protect the brain against cognitive decline and neurodegenerative processes. Altered RSFC in language and control networks subsequent to L2 training programs also is associated with improved global cognition in older adults. This review ends with a brief discussion of potential confounding factors in bilingualism research and conclusions and suggestions for future research.
... For example, Bialystok, Craik, Klein & Viswanathan (2004) compared the performance of monolingual and bilingual middle-aged and older adults on the Simon task, and found smaller Simon effect costs for bilinguals in both age groups, as well as a greater bilingual advantage for older participants. Similarly, Bialystok, Craik, and Ryan (2006) found that adults in their 60s were slower than young adults in their 20s in performing a task designed to test executive control, more specifically response suppression, inhibitory control and task-switching, but the slowing down with age was less extreme in bilinguals than it was in monolinguals (see also a review by Bialystok, Abutalebi, Bak, Burke, & Kroll, 2016). ...
... In many cases, the initial BA findings referred to above have been hard to replicate, and both methodological shortcomings and failure to take confounding factors into account have been mentioned. Furthermore, many have pointed to a possible publication bias at play: Journals tend to prefer to publish positive results, so that studies reporting non-results are less likely to be published.The findings of a delay of the onset of symptoms of dementia in bilinguals mentioned above (e.g.Bialystok et al. 2016;Alladi et al. 2013) have been criticised for being only retrospective, and the few existing prospective studies have failed to replicate the findings (see, for example,Mukadam, Sommerlad, & Livingston 2017). In a recent metaanalysis byLehtonen et al. (2018:1), which comprised 152 studies on the effect of bilingualism on executive functioning in adults, using a wide range of instruments, the authors concluded that: "[...] the available evidence does not provide systematic support for the widely held ...
The aim of the present volume is to provide an authoritative overview of research on multilingualism and ageing. Multilingualism exists in all countries, partly for historical reasons, but currently also because large numbers of people are moving into different countries due to wars, conflicts, and more general trends of globalisation. Furthermore, the world's population is ageing, and therefore the number of elderly multilinguals is also increasing. Whereas ageing in itself should not be viewed as a problem, there are of course certain challenges involved for care provision in relation to increasingly older populations, particularly in terms of multilingualism. So far, there is limited research backing up endeavours for care and healthcare concerning multilingualism and ageing. Here we try to bring together research that addresses these issues.
The authors are all part of Centre for Multilingualism in Society across the Lifespan at The University of Oslo, either as staff, or, as associated researchers. Multilingualism over the lifespan is the central topic of research within the centre, with among others a number of projects on healthy ageing, aphasia and dementia in early as well as late multilinguals. The present contribution brings together the expertise on this topic at the centre, and is a joint venture of members of staff from the centre and the editors. The volume provides an overview of psycholinguistic as well as sociolinguistic perspectives on multilingualism and ageing in concert; a take which is an explicit goal for the centre, and so far, rare in this field. The audience aimed at are students in graduate programs, researchers, practitioners and anyone who is interested in multilingualism and ageing.
... Ainda há a necessidade de se realizar mais pesquisas nesta área, mas, considerando que as evidências têm apontado para que a hipótese da reserva cognitiva decorrente do exercício do bilinguismo seja procedente, esta área de pesquisa possui relevantes implicações para a saúde pública. Bialystok, Abutalebi, Bak, Burke e Kroll (2016) argumentam que os resultados que ligam o bilinguismo a um atraso no aparecimento dos sintomas de demência demonstram uma possibilidade: que o incentivo do bilinguismo e do multilinguismo através da educação e políticas públicas poderia evitar muitos casos de demência e gerar uma enorme economia, visto que cada vez mais se gasta com a saúde da população idosa. Mesmo considerando que o bilinguismo apenas atrasaria o aparecimento dos sintomas, em vez de, de fato, prevenir o surgimento da doença, é preciso considerar que muitos pacientes poderiam vir a falecer antes do agravamento da doença -gerando uma economia de recursos, uma redução no número de diagnósticos e uma vida mais saudável aos portadores de estágios iniciais demência, especialmente as supracitadas CCL e DA. ...
... Dadas estas críticas, os autores argumentam que o melhor desenho de pesquisa para se verificar de forma satisfatória a relação entre o bilinguismo e a demência seria a utilização de medidas comportamentais aliadas a medidas neurais, para que seja possível observar a relação entre a degeneração cerebral promovida pela demência e o exercício do bilinguismo em uma mesma análise. Tais pesquisas se fariam necessárias tanto por uma questão de saúde pública, como dito em Bialystok et al. (2016), quanto por uma questão de diagnóstico e de medidas neuropsicológicas, tal como dito em Anderson et al. (2017). Sobre a capacidade de memória de trabalho, as pesquisas apontam para vantagens bilíngues em contextos não-verbais e vantagens monolíngues em contextos verbais, porém há a necessidade da realização de mais pesquisas nesta área. ...
It is important to study the relation between bilingualism and cognition in elderly people because the cognitive reserve hypothesis has implications for the health of healthy elderly people, the ones with dementia and public health. Dr. Ellen Bialystok, main investigator of Lifespan, Cognition and Development Lab (York University, Canada) is one of the main researchers in this field and, because of her importance in the field, this research intended to review every data collection article related to the elderly that was published in a scientific journal by her in the years between 2012 and 2018, located in her lab's website. 13 articles that met the inclusion criteria were found, being them on different cognitive and neurophysiological aspects. The studies indicated significant neurophysiological differences between bilinguals and monolinguals and that there is evidence in favor of the cognitive reserve hypothesis in bilingual populations. Regarding working memory, a pattern was observed in which monolinguals showed advantage in verbal test based studies, while in non-verbal test based studies the bilinguals showed an advantage.
... The first limitation, which is common to most studies of SM, is the high overlap between immigration and bilingual status. Such confounding is difficult to avoid in countries where bilingualism is associated with immigrants and their descendants (Bialystok et al., 2016;Paap & Greenberg, 2013), or where bi-and monolingual participants are recruited from different parts of the same country (Antón et al., 2014). In such cases, both groups might differ not only in language but also in other important variables such as social structure, SES, and education (Cox et al., 2016). ...
Although the diagnosis of selective mutism (SM) is more prevalent among immigrant children, the link between the disorder and an immigration background has been elusive. Guided by ecocultural models of development, the current study aimed to construct a theory-based description of SM while considering individual, family, and contextual risk factors. Participants were 78 children with SM (38.4% with an immigration background), and 247 typically developed children (18.2% with an immigration background). Consistent with previous studies, our results suggest that anxiety was the most important predictor of SM symptoms, above and beyond immigration background. Immigration, especially if coupled with bilingual status and low family income, predicted increased levels of SM symptoms. Identifying multi-level predictors of SM may help researchers and clinicians to improve early identification and treatment of SM in culturally and linguistically diverse children.
... The first limitation, which is common to most studies of SM, is the high overlap between immigration and bilingual status. Such confounding is difficult to avoid in countries where bilingualism is associated with immigrants and their descendants (Bialystok et al., 2016;Paap & Greenberg, 2013), or where bi-and monolingual participants are recruited from different parts of the same country (Antón et al., 2014). In such cases, both groups might differ not only in language but also in other important variables such as social structure, SES, and education (Cox et al., 2016). ...
Although the diagnosis of selective mutism (SM) is more prevalent among immigrant children, the link between the disorder and an immigration background has been elusive. Guided by ecocultural models of development, the current study aimed to construct a theory-based description of SM while considering individual, family, and contextual risk factors. Participants were 78 children with SM (38.4% with an immigration background), and 247 typically developed children (18.2% with an immigration background). Consistent with previous studies, our results suggest that anxiety was the most important predictor of SM symptoms, above and beyond immigration background. Immigration, especially if coupled with bilingual status and low family income, predicted increased levels of SM symptoms. Identifying multi-level predictors of SM may help researchers and clinicians to improve early identification and treatment of SM in culturally and linguistically diverse children.
... Hesperia. Anuario de Filología Hispánica XXVI-1 (2023) además ratificar la hipótesis de la ventaja bilingüe (Bialystok et al., 2012(Bialystok et al., y 2016. Tal y como se analiza en estas páginas, estas diferencias también se observan en sujetos jóvenes que están aprendiendo una L2 (Hosoda et al., 2013). ...
... Examining the Role of Afghan Refugee Children's First Language at a School in Pakistan decades have indicated the linguistic, social, and cultural benefits of home or first-language maintenance (Anderson et al., 2017;Bialystok et al., 2016;Kroll & Bialystok, 2013). For instance, Bialystok and her colleagues showed the various benefits of bilingualism in children, including that bilingualism persists throughout one's lifespan. ...
The purpose of this chapter is to examine the beliefs of four elementary-aged Afghan refugee children regarding their first-language usage in school, while living in their first asylum country of Pakistan. It shares findings related to the following research questions: What are the beliefs of four elementary-aged Afghan refugee children regarding their first language? What are the teachers' beliefs regarding the use of first language at school? Findings indicated that the children were divided on their perspectives on using their first language at school and the possibility of having a first language class. The female children did not want a Pashto class, while the male focal children welcomed it, with some contradictions from the child in kindergarten. Moreover, most teachers emphasized that Afghan students focus on the school's languages of instructions, English and Urdu, and restricted Pashto to the home. Many teachers believed the first language maintenance should be parents' responsibility and regulated within the home. The author concludes with implications for educators.
... In the past, the idea that older adults could be successful new language learners was considered something close to a ludicrous proposal. At the same time, there is an extensive literature on the neuroprotections that bilingualism affords for older adults (e.g., Abutalebi et al., 2014;Bialystok et al., 2016;Bialystok et al., 2007). Bi-and multilingualism change the mind and brain in ways that appear to provide enhanced cognitive and neural reserve in the face of both healthy cognitive aging and under the pathological conditions of dementia. ...
In our increasingly multilingual modern world, understanding how languages beyond the first are acquired and processed at a brain level is essential to design evidence-based teaching, clinical interventions and language policy. Written by a team of world-leading experts in a wide range of disciplines within cognitive science, this Handbook provides a comprehensive overview of the study of third (and more) language acquisition and processing. It features 30 approachable chapters covering topics such as multilingual language acquisition, education, language maintenance and language loss, multilingual code-switching, ageing in the multilingual brain, and many more. Each chapter provides an accessible overview of the state of the art in its topic, while offering comprehensive access to the specialized literature, through carefully curated citations. It also serves as a methodological resource for researchers in the field, offering chapters on methods such as case studies, corpora, artificial language systems or statistical modelling of multilingual data.
... Thus, speaking more than one language allows us to enlarge the number of people with whom we can communicate and to partake in a variety of experiences (e.g., access to international information, getting to know different cultures, or visiting foreign countries) that might enrich and improve our lives (Ramírez-Esparza et al., 2020). In particular, bilingualism has been shown to have an impact on our health by modulating the effects of cognitive development or ageing (Bialystok, 2001;Bialystok et al., 2012Bialystok et al., , 2016. However, being bilingual also implies some cognitive costs stemming from the need to manage two languages in the mind when engaged in a wide range of activities (Marian & Spivey, 2003;Giezen et al., 2015). ...
The current thesis endeavours to understand how the cognitive effects of
knowing and managing two languages can affect an essential ability, namely,
remembering future intentions. In researching it, we have observed the important
role of the language in which these activities are performed, as well as the
characteristics that define bilinguals. Overall, this work is an exciting starting point
to guide my future research and my attempts to draw a broader picture of how
bilingualism influences memory.
... With an increasingly aging population and no current pharmacological cure for progressive neurodegeneration, such as MCI or AD, it is imperative to explore alternatives that may provide for healthier and longer quality of life. It has been argued that bilingualism can be viewed as a 'solution hiding in plain sight' for this impeding public health crisis (Bialystok et al., 2016); still, it is crucial to understand the exact effects of bilingualism on brain and cognition and the mechanisms that afford the delays in symptom onset and diagnosis moving forward. In light of the present results, the cognitive exercise associated with bilingual engagement can be considered as a contributor to neural resilience, at least when it comes to adaptations commensurate with structural reserve in one of the key brain structures associated with dementia. ...
Bilingualism has been shown to contribute to increased resilience against cognitive aging. One of the key brain structures linked to memory and dementia symptom onset, the hippocampus, has been observed to adapt in response to bilingual experience – at least in healthy individuals. However, in the context of neurodegenerative pathology, it is yet unclear what role previous bilingual experience might have in terms of sustaining integrity of this structure or related behavioral correlates. The present study adds to the limited cohort of research on the effects of bilingualism on neurocognitive outcomes in Mild Cognitive Impairment (MCI) using structural brain data. We investigate whether bilingual language experience (operationalized as language entropy) results in graded neurocognitive adaptations within a cohort of bilinguals diagnosed with MCI. Results reveal a non-linear effect of bilingual language entropy on hippocampal volume, although they do not predict episodic memory performance, nor age of MCI diagnosis.
... Bilingualism as a Protective Factor in Healthy Aging and Pathological Age-Related Changes. Numerous studies have shown that learning a second language contributes to the successful maintenance of cerebral function at the cognitive and neural levels during human aging Bialystok et al., 2004Bialystok et al., , 2016Del Maschio et al., 2018;. The fi rst indications of the role of bilingualism as a factor in preventing cognitive decline came from studies of the relationship between the use of multiple languages and better executive control (EC) over the course of an individual's life (for review see [Bialystok, 2017]), though debate about this benefi t of multilingualism is still relevant Duñabeitia et al., 2014;Gathercole et al., 2014;Paap et al., 2015]. ...
... Additionally, the interacting effects of bilingualism with other cognitive reserve variables should be explored further, with the potential to elucidate which combinations of life experiences are most strongly associated with a later age of dementia onset. As there is no known cure for these devastating neurogenerative diseases, life experiences associated with a delay in age at onset should continue to be considered at the broader societal level (Bialystok, Abutalebi, Bak, Burke & Kroll, 2016). ...
Bilingualism is thought to confer advantages in executive functioning, thereby contributing to cognitive reserve and a later age of dementia symptom onset. While the relation between bilingualism and age of onset has been explored in Alzheimer's dementia, there are few studies examining bilingualism as a contributor to cognitive reserve in frontotemporal dementia (FTD). In line with previous findings, we hypothesized that bilinguals with behavioral variant FTD would be older at symptom onset compared to monolinguals, but that no such effect would be found in patients with nonfluent/agrammatic variant primary progressive aphasia (PPA) or semantic variant PPA. Contrary to our hypothesis, we found no significant difference in age at symptom onset between monolingual and bilingual speakers within any of the FTD variants, and there were no notable differences on neuropsychological measures. Overall, our results do not support a protective effect of bilingualism in patients with FTD-spectrum disease in a U.S. based cohort.
... Los padres y madres que hablan en inglés con su(s) hijo(s)/a(s) también subrayan los beneficios cognitivos como una de las razones que los ha llevado a tomar esta decisión y es que, pese a la existencia de un debate científico al respecto (véanse Antón et al., 2014, el bilingüismo se ha postulado como un factor que afecta positivamente al desarrollo de las funciones ejecutivas (para una revisión reciente, véase Leivada et al., 2020). De hecho, Bak y Alladi (2014) y Bialystok et al. (2016) señalan que el bilingüismo continuado a lo largo de la vida contribuye a la reserva cognitiva y retrasa la aparición de síntomas de demencia. ...
... Not surprisingly, research in psycholinguistics and cognitive neuroscience has long been tackling questions about how bilingual minds and brains work. The research questions have ranged from how multiple languages are represented and processed (e.g., Fabbro, 2001;Lucas et al., 2004;Perani & Abutalebi, 2005;Liu & Cao, 2016) to whether language processing differs between bilingual and monolingual individuals (e.g., Kovelman et al., 2008;Jones et al., 2012;Grundy et al., 2017;Pliatsikas et al., 2020;Arredondo et al., 2022), to whether bilingualism confers advantages outside of the language domain (e.g., Bialystok et al., 2016;Cespón & Carreiras, 2020;Blanco-Elorrieta & Caramazza, 2021). ...
A small fraction of the world population master five or more languages. How do such polyglots represent and process their different languages, and more generally, what can this unique population tell us about the language system? We identified the language network in each of 25 polyglots (including 16 hyperpolyglots with knowledge of 10+ languages) and examined its response to the native language, languages of varying proficiency, and unfamiliar languages. We found that all languages elicit a response reliably above the perceptually matched control condition in all areas of the language network. The response magnitude across languages generally scaled with comprehension level: aside from the native language, which elicited a relatively low response, languages that were more comprehensible to the participant elicited stronger responses. This pattern held for both familiar (studied) languages, and unfamiliar languages (cognate languages of high-proficiency languages elicited a stronger response than non-cognate languages). We also replicated a prior finding of weaker responses during native language processing in polyglots compared to non-polyglots. These results contribute to our understanding of how multiple languages co-exist within a single brain and provide new evidence that the language-selective network responds more strongly to stimuli from which more linguistic meaning can be extracted.
... Students' second language learning promotes personal socialization and contributes to international communication. In addition, the second language learning has also been shown to help individual cognitive development, for example, bilingual need to constantly switch between the two languages, when said a language inhibition of another, it is said that they have an enhanced inhibitory control mechanism, this can make them in other non-verbal cognitive tasks in regulating and control their attention (Adesope et al., 2010;Bialystok et al., 2016). Under the background of double subtraction, the time and energy that students devote to second language learning are shortened and the parent-child interaction time is prolonged. ...
It has become a consensus that parental emotional companionship can promote the healthy growth of children. However, the theoretical circle still knows little about the relationship between parental emotional companionship and children’s second language acquisition and the internal processes. In this study, the path analysis method was adopted to analyze the academic quality testing data of Grade 5 and Grade 9 students obtained by questionnaire survey method in Jiangsu Province in 2020, so as to explore the influence mechanism of parental emotional companionship on children’s second language acquisition. The results show that parental emotional companionship promotes second language acquisition. Learning confidence and internal learning motivation play an intermediary role in this relationship. Learning confidence positively influences internal learning motivation and plays a chain mediating role. The indirect effect of internal learning motivation in the middle school group is the masking effect. The conclusion of this study reveals the influence mechanism of parental emotional companionship on children’s second language acquisition, which enriches and deepens the theoretical understanding of the affective factors affecting second language acquisition. Theoretical and practical implications, along with limitations and future research directions were discussed.
... In research with older adults, there is more consistent evidence that bilinguals outperform monolinguals in EF task performance (Goral et al., 2015; for review, see Bialystok et al., 2016). In this line of research, there has been particular interest in the neuroprotective potential of bilingualism, specifically testing if the lifelong exercise of language control afects the brain networks in the prefrontal cortices that show vulnerability to the aging process (Bialystok & Sullivan, 2017). ...
... In the present thesis, I tangentially try to touch upon this issues since Multilingual language acquisition and multilingual brain processing complement each other and ultimately lead, among other things, to practical discussions in pedagogy and didactics (cf. Cenoz, 2013;Cenoz et al., 2001a;Trotzke & Kupisch, 2020), healthy cognitive aging (e.g., Abutalebi et al., 2014;Bialystok et al., 2004Bialystok et al., , 2016Borsa et al., 2018;Duncan & Phillips, 2016), language policy (Barakos, 2012;Slavkov, 2017) and more (see Chapter 5 for further discussions). ...
... I also draw from the research over the past decade that has shown the social, cultural, and linguistic benefits of bilingualism and firstor home-language maintenance. In their research, Bialystok et al. (2016) found the cognitive benefits of bilingualism in children that appeared to be persistent throughout their lifespans. In addition, a child's first language can be an essential resource for second-language learning (Cummins, 2013). ...
This article examines four Afghan refugee parents/guardians in Islamabad, Pakistan for their beliefs about literacy and language(s). Semi-structured interviews with each parent/guardian showed that they all highly valued reading and writing as essential life skills. However, while they viewed literacy as having instrumental value, they also strongly believed it shaped and developed a person morally and supported one to think critically. In terms of language(s), all of the parents/guardians wanted their children to learn to read and write in their first language, and believed that speaking only one’s first language was not enough. They believed that the school their children attended should offer classes to teach them to read and write in their first language. In addition, they supported their children learning Urdu, the national language of their host country, Pakistan. All of the parents also mentioned the importance of having their children learn English, as they believed it is an international and useful language in the world. This study offers important findings regarding parents’/guardians’ beliefs about language and literacy from one of the largest refugee groups about which little is known.
... Dewaele and van Oudenhoven 2009;Dewaele 2012), which is an important complement to the rich ongoing research on the cognitive consequences of FL proficiency (cf. Valian 2015;Bialystok et al. 2016). Second, it enhances our understanding of the psychological profiles of bilinguals in China, where the number of FL-knowing Chinese already reached 416 million in 2000 (Wei and Su 2012), but the Chinese context remains 'under-investigated' (Wei andHu 2019, 1209). ...
Psychological variables remain a much under-investigated sub-category of individual differences (IDs) compared with cognitive ones. The present paper aims to gain a better understanding of the psychological effects of bilingualism by investigating national identity (NI), a socio-psychological construct, based on big data, that has rarely been examined. Drawing upon the 2015 Chinese Social Survey (CSS), which utilised a nationally representative sample (N = 10242), we employed a 'more refined' version of hierarchical regression analysis on the influence of foreign-language (FL)-based bilingualism and other sociobiographical variables on NI. Out of the 18 initial independent variables, satisfaction with life (1.7%-2.2%) and age (1.2%-1.4%) emerged as important predictors for NI as their minimum effect size value (ΔR 2 , see the range in brackets) exceeded the 'typical' benchmark (1%); in contrast, the influence respectively from FL mastery (.006%-.040%) and FL use (.000%-.004%) was negligible. In other words, our key finding is that a person's FL-based bilingualism had little to do with his/her NI. Implications for China's plan to reform FL (e.g. English) learning are discussed, and future research directions are also proposed.
... Dewaele and van Oudenhoven 2009;Dewaele 2012), which is an important complement to the rich ongoing research on the cognitive consequences of FL proficiency (cf. Valian 2015;Bialystok et al. 2016). Second, it enhances our understanding of the psychological profiles of bilinguals in China, where the number of FL-knowing Chinese already reached 416 million in 2000 (Wei and Su 2012), but the Chinese context remains 'under-investigated' (Wei andHu 2019, 1209). ...
... Kim et al., 2019). Lifelong bilingualism has also been reported associated with preservation of white matter (Abutalebi et al., 2014;Abutalebi et al., 2015a;Abutalebi et al., 2015b;Luk et al., 2011;Olsen et al., 2015) and gray matter density (Abutalebi et al., 2014;Bialystok, Abutalebi, Bak, Burke, & Kroll, 2016;Coggins et al., 2004;García-Pent on et al., 2014;Li, Legault, & Litcofsky, 2014;Luk et al., 2011;Olsen et al., 2015;Pliatsikas et al., 2020). Altogether, these changes contribute to the build-up of a brain reserve, conferring a higher resistance against the effects on aging and AD pathology on the brain, and of a cognitive reserve so that bilingual individuals are able to retain a similar degree of residual cognitive function, compared to monolingual individuals, in spite of presenting more severe and extended brain hypometabolism. ...
Lifelong bilingualism is associated with delayed dementia onset, suggesting a protective effect on the brain. Here, we aim to study the effects of lifelong bilingualism as a dichotomous and continuous phenomenon, on brain metabolism and connectivity in individuals with Alzheimer's dementia. Ninety-eight patients with Alzheimer's dementia (56 monolinguals; 42 bilinguals) from three centers entered the study. All underwent an [18F]-fluorodeoxyglucose positron emission tomography (PET) imaging session. A language background questionnaire measured the level of language use for conversation and reading. Severity of brain hypometabolism and strength of connectivity of the major neurocognitive networks was compared across monolingual and bilingual individuals, and tested against the frequency of second language life-long usage. Age, years of education, and MMSE score were included in all above mentioned analyses as nuisance covariates. Cerebral hypometabolism was more severe in bilingual compared to monolingual patients; severity of hypometabolism positively correlated with the degree of second language use. The metabolic connectivity analyses showed increased connectivity in the executive, language, and anterior default mode networks in bilingual compared to monolingual patients. The change in neuronal connectivity was stronger in subjects with higher second language use. All effects were most pronounced in the left cerebral hemisphere. The neuroprotective effects of lifelong bilingualism act both against neurodegenerative processes and through the modulation of brain networks connectivity. These findings highlight the relevance of lifelong bilingualism in brain reserve and compensation, supporting bilingual education and social interventions aimed at usage, and maintenance of two or more languages, including dialects, especially crucial in the elderly people.
... Performance-based assessments have been recommended as best practices to assess degree of bilingualism in Latinos (Artiola i Fortuny et al., 1999;Ostrosky-Solis et al., 2007;Pontón, 2001), as compared to self-report of bilingualism. However, while performancebased tests have been positively associated with cognition (Bialystok, Craik, Green & Gollan, 2009;Bialystok, Abutalebi, Bak, Burke, & Kroll, 2016), they are also positively associated with more years of education and higher SES (Suarez et al., 2020b). These findings may reflect how the effect of bilingualism on cognition may be an indirect measure of educational attainment and social class (Acevedo et al., 2007;Luo & Waite, 2005;Rosselli & Ardila, 2003;Saez, et al., 2014). ...
Objectives
We investigated the impact of culturally relevant social, educational, and language factors on cognitive test performance among Spanish speakers living near the US–Mexico border.
Methods
Participants included 254 healthy native Spanish speakers from the Neuropsychological Norms for the US–Mexico Border Region in Spanish (NP-NUMBRS) project (Age: M = 37.3, SD = 10.4; Education: M = 10.7, SD = 4.3; 59% Female). A comprehensive neuropsychological battery was administered in Spanish. Individual test scaled scores and T -scores (based on region-specific norms adjusted for age, education, and sex) were averaged to create Global Mean Scaled and T -scores. Measures of culturally relevant factors included a self-reported indicator of educational quality/access (proportion of education in Spanish-speaking country, quality of school/classroom setting, stopped attending school to work), childhood socioeconomic environment (parental education, proportion of time living in Spanish-speaking country, childhood socioeconomic and health status, access to basic resources, work as a child), and Spanish/English language use and fluency.
Results
Several culturally relevant variables were significantly associated with unadjusted Global Scaled Scores in univariable analyses. When using demographically adjusted T -scores, fewer culturally relevant characteristics were significant. In multivariable analyses, being bilingual ( p = .04) and working as a child for one’s own benefit compared to not working as a child ( p = .006) were significantly associated with higher Global Mean T -score, accounting for 9% of variance.
Conclusions
Demographically adjusted normative data provide a useful tool for the identification of brain dysfunction, as these account for much of the variance of sociocultural factors on cognitive test performance. Yet, certain culturally relevant variables still contributed to cognitive test performance above and beyond basic demographics, warranting further investigation.
... Finally, in our work with immigrant and refugee families, we draw on scholarship in bilingualism, second language acquisition and home language maintenance and loss. We identify the following principles from this literature: 1) young children's language and learning in a second language is facilitated if their first language is intact (Snow, Griffin, & Burns, 1998); 2) cognitive and linguistic skills transfer across languages (Cummins, 2013); 3) bilingualism offers cognitive and other benefits across the lifespan (Bialystok et al., 2016); and 4) intergenerational family communication is enhanced when children maintain their first or home language (Wong-Fillmore, 2000). Put simply, there are compelling reasons to work with immigrant and refugee families in family literacy programs in maintaining their home languages. ...
The purpose of this article is to reflect on three decades of working in family literacy initiatives in diverse communities. We review the literature on children’s emergent early literacy development and family literacy and describe the conceptual framework, including socio-cultural theory, cultural models of learning and ethnotheories, culturally responsive pedagogy, and bilingualism and first or home language maintenance. We also describe the development and evolution of the various projects and their contexts after which we share some of the key things we learned from working with families and communities, including challenges. In conclusion, we highlight key insights garnered from this body of work for various stakeholders including teachers.
... In addition, bilinguals who frequently switch between languages in daily life may have better task-switching skills (e.g., Prior & Gollan, 2011). Furthermore, cognitive benefits of bilingualism have been linked to delays in the onset of diseases such as dementia and to less decline associated with healthy ageing, with possible implications for public health (Bialystok, Abutalebi, Bak, Burke, & Kroll, 2016;Perani et al., 2017). This attractive idea termed "bilingual advantage" (e.g., Kroll & Bialystok, 2013) has been quickly adopted by the mass media publishing headlines and statements such as: "Bilingual adults have sharper brains" (Huffington Post, 2013); "Being bilingual really does boost brain power" (Dailymail.com, ...
The heated debate regarding bilingual cognitive advantages remains ongoing. While there are many studies supporting positive cognitive effects of bilingualism, recent meta-analyses have concluded that there is no consistent evidence for a ’bilingual advantage’. In this paper we focus on several theoretical concerns. First, we discuss changes in theoretical frameworks, which have led to the development of insufficiently clear theories and hypotheses that are difficult to falsify. Next, we discuss the development of looking at bilingual experiences and the need to better understand language control. Last, we argue that the move from behavioural studies to a focus on brain plasticity is not going to solve the debate on cognitive effects, especially not when brain changes are interpreted in the absence of behavioural differences. Clearer theories on both behavioural and neural effects of bilingualism are needed. However, to achieve this, a solid understanding of both bilingualism and executive functions is needed first.
... On the one hand, it has been well-documented that bi/multilinguals make up a significant portion of the population, and multilingualism has become an international fact of life (Grosjean 2010), which means that we are dealing with increasing numbers of multilingual children with a variety of different cultural backgrounds in our schools (Meijer et al. 2003). On the other hand, the profile of second language (L2) skill development that has been obtained for monolingual early and late starters of an L2 may be different in crucial respects from that of children who are developing two languages in childhood and establishing basic cognitive competencies through the mediation of two languages (for a recent review see Bialystok et al. 2016). Bilinguals are often regarded as particularly talented language learners, and research has corroborated the belief that the more languages you know the easier it is to learn an additional language (e.g. ) -although the opposite has also been found, i.e. a whole body of evidence questioning the notion of a general bilingual advantage has emerged recently (see e.g. ...
This book deals with the phenomenon of third language (L3) acquisition. As a research field, L3 acquisition is established as a branch of multilingualism that is concerned with how multilinguals learn additional languages and the role their multilingual background plays in the process of language learning. The volume points out some current directions in this particular research area with a number of studies that reveal the complexity of multilingual language learning and its typical variation and dynamics.
... Lifelong bilingualism has been shown to confer executive control benefits for older adults, allowing bilinguals on average to outperform monolingual peers (Bialystok et al. 2016). Although positive effects for bilinguals compared to monolinguals are less likely to be found in young adults (e.g., Paap and Greenburg 2013;Paap and Sawi 2014;von Bastian, Souza and Gade 2016), research with children has produced both positive and null results (e.g., Dick et al 2019; Duñabeitia et al. 2014; see Leivada et al. 2020 for a review on the "phantom-like" effects of bilingualism). ...
Previous studies have reported bilingualism to be a proxy of cognitive reserve (CR) based on evidence that bilinguals express dementia symptoms ~ 4 years later than monolinguals yet present with greater neuropathology at time of diagnosis when clinical levels are similar. The current study provides new evidence supporting bilingualism’s contribution to CR using a novel brain health matching paradigm. Forty cognitively normal bilinguals with diffusion-weighted magnetic resonance images recruited from the community were matched with monolinguals drawn from a pool of 165 individuals in the Alzheimer’s Disease Neuroimaging Initiative (ADNI) database. White matter integrity was determined for all participants using fractional anisotropy, axial diffusivity, and radial diffusivity scores. Propensity scores were obtained using white matter measures, sex, age, and education as predictive covariates, and then used in one-to-one matching between language groups, creating a matched sample of 32 participants per group. Matched monolinguals had poorer clinical diagnoses than that predicted by chance from a theoretical null distribution, and poorer cognitive performances than matched bilinguals as measured by scores on the MMSE. The findings provide support for the interpretation that bilingualism acts as a proxy of CR such that monolinguals have poorer clinical and cognitive outcomes than bilinguals for similar levels of white matter integrity even before clinical symptoms appear.
... A growing body of research is emerging regarding the potential positive effects that bilingualism and language learning may have on old-age disorders [66,155]. These studies have typically focused on building up cognitive reserve across the lifespan in order to stave off clinical symptoms of dementia [60][61][62][63][64]. ...
Late-life depression (LLD) affects about an eighth of community-dwelling seniors. LLD impacts well-being, with loneliness and small social networks being typical. It has also been linked to cognitive dysfunction and an increased risk of developing dementia. Safety and efficacy of pharmacological treatments for LLD have been debated, and cognitive dysfunction often persists even after remission. Various cognitive interventions have been proposed for LLD. Among these, one has received special attention: foreign language learning could serve as a social intervention that simultaneously targets brain structures affected in LLD. Lifelong bilingualism may significantly delay the onset of cognitive impairment symptoms by boosting cognitive reserve. Even late-life foreign language learning without lifelong bilingualism can train cognitive flexibility. It is then counterintuitive that the effects of language learning on LLD have never been examined. In order to create a theoretical basis for further interdisciplinary research, this paper presents a status quo of current work through two meta-analyses investigating cognitive functioning in LLD on the one hand and in senior bilinguals or seniors following a language course on the other hand. While LLD was consistently associated with cognitive dysfunction, inconsistent results were found for bilingualism and language learners. Possible reasons for this and suggestions for future research are subsequently discussed.
Bilingualism has been associated with cognitive benefits and a potential protective effect against neurodegenerative conditions. Previous research has shown that bilingual individuals exhibit greater white matter integrity compared to monolinguals of the same age. However, the impact of foreign-language learning on brain structure in older adults during the initial stages of language acquisition remains uncertain. This study aimed to investigate the cognitive and structural effects of a four-month-long foreign language learning program in a group of healthy older adult monolinguals. Thirteen Italian-speaking participants (aged 59-78) underwent a four-month intensive English course for beginners. Pre- and post-assessments were conducted to evaluate executive cognitive functions, as well as diffusion tensor imaging (DTI) to examine brain structural changes.
The study findings showed substantial increases in axial, radial, and mean diffusivity during the four-month language learning period. The most prominent variations were observed in key brain regions, namely the fronto-occipital fasciculus, the superior longitudinal fasciculus, and the corpus callosum areas. Notably, brain-behaviour correlations indicated a robust positive relationship between changes in axial diffusivity and performance on the Stroop task, which assesses cognitive interference inhibition. These findings suggest that a four-month foreign language learning program can induce structural changes in the brain, particularly affecting white matter integrity, and that these structural changes are associated with improvements in executive functions. The study highlights the potential of short-term language learning interventions to impact brain structure and cognitive abilities in older adults.
Alzheimer’s disease (AD) is an age-related neurocognitive disorder that is epidemic in the elderly population. Currently, there are limited pharmacological interventions, and this has heightened the urgency to identify potential preventable or modifiable risk factors that promote resilience to the neuropathological effects of AD. The regular use of two or more languages is one such factor that may increases cognitive reserve through the long-standing executive control involved in managing multiple languages in the brain. There is also evidence that bilingualism is associated with increased brain reserve or maintenance, particularly in frontal-executive structures and networks. This review examines the current, sometimes conflicting literature on bi/multilingualism and AD. These studies have confounding variations in the assessment of age of second language onset, language proficiency, language usage, and whether determining incidence of AD or age of symptom onset. Despite these limitations, most publications support the presence of increased frontal-executive reserve that compensates for the development of AD neuropathology and, thereby, delays the emergence of clinical symptoms of dementia by about 4-5 years. Although regularly speaking more than one language does not protect against AD neuropathology, the delay in its clinical expression has a potentially significant impact on the lifelong morbidity from this age-related disease. Learning other languages may be an important modifiable factor for delaying the clinical expression of AD in later life.
In our increasingly multilingual modern world, understanding how languages beyond the first are acquired and processed at a brain level is essential to design evidence-based teaching, clinical interventions and language policy. Written by a team of world-leading experts in a wide range of disciplines within cognitive science, this Handbook provides a comprehensive overview of the study of third (and more) language acquisition and processing. It features 30 approachable chapters covering topics such as multilingual language acquisition, education, language maintenance and language loss, multilingual code-switching, ageing in the multilingual brain, and many more. Each chapter provides an accessible overview of the state of the art in its topic, while offering comprehensive access to the specialized literature, through carefully curated citations. It also serves as a methodological resource for researchers in the field, offering chapters on methods such as case studies, corpora, artificial language systems or statistical modelling of multilingual data.
Families play a critical role in promoting students’ literacy development. Family literacy practices refer to oral, written, and reading strategies that impart cultural traditions and knowledge of the world and that occur in the dominant or native language of a family. It is especially important for educators to understand and build upon such practices when working with multilingual, immigrant, refugee, or asylee students who are the first in their family to attend school in a new host country. Unfortunately, teachers frequently report they are at a loss as to how to engage with the adult guardians of these students on joint efforts to encourage reading in a second language. In this review, effective family literacy programs published in the last several decades reported in the U.S. or internationally are analyzed for how they promote early English literacy skills while honoring a family's native language and culture and simultaneously encouraging strong partnerships between homes, schools, and communities. Culturally sustaining pedagogical approaches reflected within these programs provide ideas for how to intentionally encourage future enhancements of family literacy programming and research.
The question of the formation of gerontolinguistics in China as a relatively new scientific branch for the country is considered. The relevance of the study is due to the high growth rate of the elderly Chinese population. The authors of the article offer an overview of gerontolinguistic works in China, selected on the basis of an analysis of journal articles, monographic studies, dissertations placed in Chinese libraries. It is noted that gerontolinguistics in China began its formation only in the 21 st century, while in Western science the problems of working with the elderly began to be intensively studied in the second half of the 20 th century. It is argued that Chinese gerontolinguistics is based on the traditions of Western science, taking into account Chinese realities. An overview of the works of Chinese scientists on gerontolinguistics is given, from 2003 to the present. It is shown that during this period, multimodal studies of the language and speech of various geront groups, including people suffering from Alzheimer’s disease, are especially actively carried out. The tasks that gerontological research solves are described, including the prevention and treatment of Alzheimer’s disease, improving the quality of life of older people, and identifying their preferences in the sociocultural sphere, for example, advertising. To solve these problems, the possibilities of artificial intelligence are actively used.
Fibrosis is a pathological process caused by abnormal wound healing response, which often leads to excessive deposition of extracellular matrix, distortion of organ architecture, and loss of organ function. Aging is an important risk factor for the development of organ fibrosis. CXCR4 is the predominant chemokine receptor on fibrocytes, CXCL12 is the only ligand of CXCR4. Accumulated evidence have confirmed that CXCL12/CXCR4 can be involved in multiple pathological mechanisms in fibrosis, such as inflammation, immunity, epithelial-mesenchymal transition, and angiogenesis. In addition, CXCL12/CXCR4 have also been shown to improve fibrosis levels in many organs including the heart, liver, lung and kidney; thus, they are promising targets for anti-fibrotic therapy. Notably, inhibitors of CXCL12 or CXCR4 also play an important role in various fibrosis-related diseases. In summary, this review systematically summarizes the role of CXCL12/CXCR4 in fibrosis, and this information is of great significance for understanding CXCL12/CXCR4. This will also contribute to the design of further studies related to CXCL12/CXCR4 and fibrosis, and shed light on potential therapies for fibrosis.
Second language learning has been shown more difficult for older than younger adults, however, the research trying to identify the sources of difficulty and possible modulating factors is scarce. Extrinsic (learning condition and complexity) and intrinsic factors (executive control) have been related to L2-grammar learning in younger adults. In the present study, we aim to assess whether extrinsic and intrinsic factors are also modulating grammar learning in older adults. We compared the learning performance of younger and older adults in a L2 learning task. 162 Spanish native-speakers (81 young) learnt Japañol (Japanese syntaxis and Spanish lexicon) in either an intentional (metalinguistic explanation) or an incidental (comprehension of sentences) context. The complexity of the sentences was also manipulated by introducing (or not) a subordinate clause. Individual differences in proactivity were measured with the AX-CPT task. After the learning phase, participants performed a Grammatical Judgment Task where they answered if the presented sentences were grammatically correct. No differences between older and younger adults were found. Overall, better results were found for the intentional-condition than for the incidental-condition. A significant interaction between learning context and the proactivity index in the AX-CPT task showed that more proactive participants were better when learning in the incidental-condition. These results suggest that both extrinsic and intrinsic factors are important during language learning and that they equally affect younger and older adults.
In alphabetic languages like ours, learning to write requires awareness of the phonological structure of speech. Phonological awareness is the ability to access the structure of the oral language and be aware of the phonological segments of words. The purpose of the work is to carry out an analysis on the importance of the teaching of phonemes, as a key element for the development of the subject of language in the students at elementary school of the Educational Unit Fisco Misional Cinco de Mayo of the Chone Canton in the period 2021-2022, as well as the strong relationship that exists between the development of oral language and the skills that favor phonological knowledge in elementary school students. The research is based on a bibliographic review and descriptive work, which made it possible to characterize the impact of phonemes on the development of language in elementary school students and it was possible to verify the strong relationship that exists between the development of oral language and the skills that favor phonological knowledge in students.
This chapter provides a detailed analysis of different types of metaphors that have been used in academic discourse to explain how different languages coexist and interact in a bilingual’s brain. These metaphors can be mainly related to three source domains: war in the first half of the twentieth century, and later sports and business competition. These different source domains can be schematically reduced to the notion of contentious activities between two parties. The contention metaphor scheme is not only ubiquitous in discourse on the effects of bilingualism on cognition, but even constitutive for theories proposed to explain the bilingual advantage or disadvantage. In line with our everyday understanding of these activities, war has disastrous consequences for the people involved, while sports and business competition are associated with enhanced performance of competitors. Thus, the idea that being bilingual entails conflict and/or competition between languages is consistent throughout the entire investigation period, while it receives different interpretations at different moments in time, leading to either negative or positive evaluations.
This chapter provides an overview of the development of research on the effects of bilingualism on cognitive performance from the beginning of the twentieth century until today. It presents the different stances that research has taken toward bilingualism at different moments in time and in different countries.
In bilingualism research, there is a rapidly growing interest towards potential neuroprotective mechanisms against age-related cognitive decline, supported by dual and multiple language use. In this brief review, we discuss existing evidence, which generally suggests that bilingualism may foster neuroplastic changes resulting in beneficial consequences for the brain both at the structural level and at the functional one during later stages of life. First, we outline the interplay between the neural function and the bilingual experience. We then propose how bilingual and multilingual experience may protect the mind and the brain from the age-related cognitive decline and its consequences. We continue by discussing the notions of cognitive and brain reserve and contextualize existing findings from bilingualism literature with regard to this newly proposed reserve framework. We highlight how bilingualism-induced neural and cognitive changes may pave the way for the development of the neural foundations of reserve: both at the neuroanatomical and at the cognitive levels. We conclude our review by proposing possible models of bilingualism-induced successful aging.
We explored 19 Latinx children’s literacies in Spanish and translanguaging by asking, “What are Latinx children’s experiences and beliefs regarding Spanish and translanguaging reading and writing? How do tutorial staff and teacher candidates (TCs) help the youth to resist hegemonic and bracketing practices of English-only?” This study took place in a South Texas tutorial agency, where children voluntarily attended for after-school homework help. Data sources consisted of questionnaires, interviews, focus groups, hobby essays, and newsletter articles. Most children reported negative school-related language experiences and expressed dislike and unease regarding Spanish and translanguaging reading and writing, although they lived less than 10 miles from the Mexico border. However, two tutorial staff and 15 TCs provided counter narratives and modeled that Spanish and translanguaged (hybrid) reading and writing are neither wrong nor difficult. Schools’ accountability pressures and the U.S. socio-political milieu move language to the center (centripetal forces), while forces that resist normalization are centrifugal. Implications relate to how neighborhood educational centers, TCs, and classroom teachers can help subaltern youth to resist centripetal language forces.
The purpose of this study was to research the assumptions about the connection between bilingualism and results in the field of cognitive functioning. Research showing the advantage of bilingual individuals in comparison with monolinguals in cognitive functioning is often explained by the mechanisms that allow bilingual individuals to control and represent the two languages in the brain. Our study included children aged 9 to 11 years: a group of bilingual children who speak Slovene and Hungarian and a control group of monolingual, Slovene speaking children. We tested them with the following cognitive abilities tests: executive functions with TMT and Stroop test, working memory with digit span task forward and backward, verbal abilities with verbal fluency test and vocabulary. The data showed that, although verbal fluency was lower in bilingual group, bilingual children performed better on versions of Stroop task, which could indicate advantage in speed of processing and to lesser extent also in ability of handling conflicting information.
This develops the topic of Ageing in better health. Here we return to the biology of ageing, that was first introduced in Chap. 1, but with a special emphasis on brain plasticity, a very important topic that is the focus of a fast-developing research program, and we also review psychological health in old age. Initially mentally healthy persons may be at risk of experiencing serious deterioration of their mental capacities as they age; therefore, we devote a section in this chapter to review mental pathologies in the elderly. Special emphasis is given to the analysis of the various forms of dementia, including Alzheimer’s disease. From there we proceed to address those aspects of ageing that affect sexual behaviour. The challenges experienced by people with a disability (mental or physical) who are becoming older are also the topic of a section in this chapter. We conclude the chapter with a section devoted to older people who reach very advanced ages: the centenarians, semi-supercentenarians, and supercentenarians.
O fenômeno do bilinguismo é a premissa essencial da tradução. Este trabalho apresenta modelos cognitivos contemporâneos que explicam o acesso lexical de bilíngues e multilíngues para o reconhecimento de palavras escritas, a partir de experimentos com homógrafos interlinguais. São abordados os trabalhos sobre conflito entre duas ou mais línguas,e como seus achados convergem para a hipótese de acesso não-seletivo ao léxico, o que elucida o impacto do bilinguismo nos processos de leitura e
tradução. Como objetivo secundário, e a partir de uma perspectiva neurocientífica, também descrevemos as mudanças no cérebro e nos processos mentais decorrentes à experiência do bilinguismo e do multilinguismo. Os estudos mostram vantagens nas funções executivas (atualização, inibição e flexibilidade mental) e mudanças estruturais e funcionais em circuitos, especialmente envolvendo os córtices pré-frontais bilateralmente. Estas mudanças têm sido apontadas como fatores importantes de proteção (reserva cognitiva e cerebral) frente a diferentes situações de perdaneural.
The current study investigated the effects of bilingualism on the clinical manifestation of Alzheimer's disease (AD) in a European sample of patients. We assessed all incoming AD patients in two university hospitals within a specified timeframe. Sixty-nine monolinguals and 65 bilinguals diagnosed with probable AD were compared for time of clinical AD manifestation and diagnosis. The influence of other potentially interacting variables was also examined. Results indicated a significant delay for bilinguals of 4.6 years in manifestation and 4.8 years in diagnosis. Our study therefore strengthens the claim that bilingualism contributes to cognitive reserve and postpones the symptoms of dementia.
The use of two or more languages is common in most of the world. Yet, until recently, bilingualism was considered to be a complicating factor for language processing, cognition, and the brain. The past 20 years have witnessed an upsurge of research on bilingualism to examine language acquisition and processing, their cognitive and neural bases, and the consequences that bilingualism holds for cognition and the brain over the life span. Contrary to the view that bilingualism complicates the language system, this new research demonstrates that all of the languages that are known and used become part of the same language system. The interactions that arise when two languages are in play have consequences for the mind and the brain and, indeed, for language processing itself, but those consequences are not additive. Thus, bilingualism helps reveal the fundamental architecture and mechanisms of language processing that are otherwise hidden in monolingual speakers.
A series of discoveries in the last two decades has changed the way we think about bilingualism and its implications for language and cognition. One is that both languages are always active. The parallel activation of the two languages is thought to give rise to competition that imposes demands on the bilingual to control the language not in use to achieve fluency in the target language. The second is that there are consequences of bilingualism that affect the native as well as the second language. The native language changes in response to second language use. The third is that the consequences of bilingualism are not limited to language but appear to reflect a reorganization of brain networks that hold implications for the ways in which bilinguals negotiate cognitive competition more generally. The focus of recent research on bilingualism has been to understand the relation between these discoveries and the implications they hold for language, cognition, and the brain across the lifespan.
It is a timely issue to understand the impact of bilingualism upon brain structure in healthy aging and upon cognitive decline given evidence of its neuroprotective effects. Plastic changes induced by bilingualism were reported in young adults in the left inferior parietal lobule (LIPL) and its right counterpart (RIPL) (Mechelli et al., 2004). Moreover, both age of second language (L2) acquisition and L2 proficiency correlated with increased grey matter (GM) in the LIPL/RIPL. However it is unknown whether such findings replicate in older bilinguals. We examined this question in an aging bilingual population from Hong Kong. Results from our Voxel Based Morphometry study show that elderly bilinguals relative to a matched monolingual control group also have increased GM volumes in the inferior parietal lobules underlining the neuroprotective effect of bilingualism. However, unlike younger adults, age of L2 acquisition did not predict GM volumes. Instead, LIPL and RIPL appear differentially sensitive to the effects of L2 proficiency and L2 exposure with LIPL more sensitive to the former and RIPL more sensitive to the latter. Our data also intimate that such differences may be more prominent for speakers of languages that are linguistically closer such as in Cantonese-Mandarin bilinguals as compared to Cantonese-English bilinguals.
Objective:
To test the hypothesis that foreign language and music instruction in early life are associated with lower incidence of mild cognitive impairment (MCI) and slower rate of cognitive decline in old age.
Method:
At enrollment in a longitudinal cohort study, 964 older persons without cognitive impairment estimated years of foreign language and music instruction by age 18. Annually thereafter they completed clinical evaluations that included cognitive testing and clinical classification of MCI.
Results:
There were 264 persons with no foreign language instruction, 576 with 1-4 years, and 124 with > 4 years; 346 persons with no music instruction, 360 with 1-4 years, and 258 with > 4 years. During a mean of 5.8 years of observation, 396 participants (41.1%) developed MCI. In a proportional hazards model adjusted for age, sex, and education, higher levels (> 4 years) of foreign language (hazard ratio [HR] = 0.687, 95% confidence interval [CI] [0.482, 0.961]) and music (HR = 0.708, 95% CI [0.539, 0.930]) instruction by the age of 18 were each associated with reduced risk of MCI. The association persisted after adjustment for other early life indicators of an enriched cognitive environment, and it was stronger for nonamnestic than amnestic MCI. Both foreign language and music instruction were associated with higher initial level of cognitive function, but neither instruction measure was associated with cognitive decline.
Conclusions:
Higher levels of foreign language and music instruction during childhood and adolescence are associated in old age with lower risk of developing MCI but not with rate of cognitive decline.
ABSTRACT:
Evidence suggests that education protects from dementia by enhancing cognitive reserve. However, this may be influenced by several socio-demographic factors. Rising numbers of dementia in India, high levels of illiteracy and heterogeneity in socio-demographic factors provide an opportunity to explore this relationship.
OBJECTIVE: To study the association between education and age at dementia onset, in relation to socio-demographic factors.
METHODS: Association between age at dementia onset and literacy was studied in relationship to potential confounding factors such as gender, bilingualism, place of dwelling, occupation, vascular risk factors, stroke, family history of dementia and dementia subtypes.
RESULTS: Case records of 648 dementia patients diagnosed in a specialist clinic in a University hospital in Hyderabad, India were examined. All patients were prospectively enrolled as part of an ongoing longitudinal project that aims to evaluate dementia subjects with detailed clinical, etiological, imaging, and follow-up studies. Of the 648 patients, 98 (15.1%) were illiterate. More than half of illiterate skilled workers were engaged in crafts and skilled agriculture unlike literates who were in trade or clerical jobs. Mean age at onset in illiterates was 60.1 years and in literates 64.5 years (p=0.0002). Factors independently associated with age at dementia onset were bilingualism, rural dwelling and stroke, but not education.
CONCLUSION: Our study demonstrates that in India, rural dwelling, bilingualism, stroke and occupation modify the relationship between education and dementia.
There is an emerging literature suggesting that speaking two or more languages may significantly delay the onset of dementia. Although the mechanisms are unknown, it has been suggested that these may involve cognitive reserve, a concept that has been associated with factors such as higher levels of education, occupational status, social networks, and physical exercise. In the case of bilingualism, cognitive reserve may involve reorganization and strengthening of neural networks that enhance executive control. We review evidence for protective effects of bilingualism from a multicultural perspective involving studies in Toronto and Montreal, Canada, and Hyderabad, India. Reports from Toronto and Hyderabad showed a significant effect of speaking two or more languages in delaying onset of Alzheimer's disease by up to 5 years, whereas the Montreal study showed a significant protective effect of speaking at least four languages and a protective effect of speaking at least two languages in immigrants. Although there were differences in results across studies, a common theme was the significant effect of language use history as one of the factors in determining the onset of Alzheimer's disease. Moreover, the Hyderabad study extended the findings to frontotemporal dementia and vascular dementia.
Recent evidence suggests a positive impact of bilingualism on cognition, including later onset of dementia. However, monolinguals and bilinguals might have different baseline cognitive ability. We present the first study examining the effect of bilingualism on later-life cognition controlling for childhood intelligence. We studied 853 participants, first tested in 1947 (age = 11 years), and retested in 2008–2010. Bilinguals performed significantly better than predicted from their baseline cognitive abilities, with strongest effects on general intelligence and reading. Our results suggest a positive effect of bilingualism on later-life cognition, including in those who acquired their second language in adulthood. Ann Neurol 2014
Objective:
Clinic-based studies suggest that dementia is diagnosed at older ages in bilinguals compared with monolinguals. The current study sought to test this hypothesis in a large, prospective, community-based study of initially nondemented Hispanic immigrants living in a Spanish-speaking enclave of northern Manhattan.
Method:
Participants included 1,067 participants in the Washington/Hamilton Heights Inwood Columbia Aging Project (WHICAP) who were tested in Spanish and followed at 18-24 month intervals for up to 23 years. Spanish-English bilingualism was estimated via both self-report and an objective measure of English reading level. Multilevel models for change estimated the independent effects of bilingualism on cognitive decline in 4 domains: episodic memory, language, executive function, and speed. Over the course of the study, 282 participants developed dementia. Cox regression was used to estimate the independent effect of bilingualism on dementia conversion. Covariates included country of origin, gender, education, time spent in the United States, recruitment cohort, and age at enrollment.
Results:
Independent of the covariates, bilingualism was associated with better memory and executive function at baseline. However, bilingualism was not independently associated with rates of cognitive decline or dementia conversion. Results were similar whether bilingualism was measured via self-report or an objective test of reading level.
Conclusions:
This study does not support a protective effect of bilingualism on age-related cognitive decline or the development of dementia. In this sample of Hispanic immigrants, bilingualism is related to higher initial scores on cognitive tests and higher educational attainment and may not represent a unique source of cognitive reserve.
Objective
Investigate the protective effect of multilingualism on cognition in seniors.
Methods
As part of the MemoVie study conducted on 232 non-demented volunteers aged 65 and more, neurogeriatric and neuropsychological evaluations were performed. Participants were classified as presenting either cognitive impairment without dementia (CIND) or being free of any cognitive impairment (CIND-free). Language practices, socio-demographic data and lifestyle habits were recorded. In this retrospective nested case-control design, we used as proxies of multilingualism: number of languages practiced, age of acquisition and duration of practice, emphasizing the temporal pattern of acquisition, and the resulting practice of several languages sequentially or concomitantly during various periods of life. This special angle on the matter offered to our work a dimension particularly original and innovative.
Results
44 subjects (19%) had CIND, the others were cognitively normal. All practiced from 2 to 7 languages. When compared with bilinguals, participants who practiced more than 2 languages presented a lower risk of CIND, after adjustment for education and age (odds ratio (OR) = 0.30, 95% confidence limits (95%CL) = [0.10–0.92]). Progressing from 2 to 3 languages, instead of staying bilingual, was associated with a 7-fold protection against CIND (OR = 0.14, 95%CL = [0.04–0.45], p = 0.0010). A one year delay to reach multilingualism (3 languages practiced being the threshold) multiplied the risk of CIND by 1.022 (OR = 1.022, 95%CL = [1.01–1.04], p = 0.0044). Also noteworthy, just as for multilingualism, an impact of cognitively stimulating activities on the occurrence of CIND was found as well (OR = 0.979, 95%CL = [0.961–0.998], p = 0.033).
Conclusion
The study did not show independence of multilingualism and CIND. Rather it seems to show a strong association toward a protection against CIND. Practicing multilingualism from early life on, and/or learning it at a fast pace is even more efficient. This protection might be related to the enhancement of cognitive reserve and brain plasticity, thereby preserving brain functions from alterations during aging.
This chapter focuses on a set of attentional or executive control processes, all inhibitory, that operate in the service of an individual's goals to narrow and constrain the contents of consciousness to be goal relevant. An uncluttered or narrowly focused "working memory," rather than a large one, is the ideal processing system. The narrow focus maximizes the speed and accuracy of on-line processing because it reduces the likelihood of switching attention to goal-irrelevant representations. The work is similar to that of other investigations in its focus on executive processes as a critical source of working memory variation as well as variation in many cognitive domains. The emphasis on inhibitory processes may be the characteristic that most differentiates their work from others.
Background: Our goal was to forecast the global burden of Alzheimer’s disease and evaluate the
potential impact of interventions that delay disease onset or progression.
Methods: A stochastic, multistate model was used in conjunction with United Nations worldwide
population forecasts and data from epidemiological studies of the risks of Alzheimer’s disease.
Results: In 2006, the worldwide prevalence of Alzheimer’s disease was 26.6 million. By 2050, the
prevalence will quadruple, by which time 1 in 85 persons worldwide will be living with the disease.
We estimate about 43% of prevalent cases need a high level of care, equivalent to that of a nursing
home. If interventions could delay both disease onset and progression by a modest 1 year, there
would be nearly 9.2 million fewer cases of the disease in 2050, with nearly the entire decline
attributable to decreases in persons needing a high level of care.
Conclusions: We face a looming global epidemic of Alzheimer’s disease as the world’s population
ages. Modest advances in therapeutic and preventive strategies that lead to even small delays in the
onset and progression of Alzheimer’s disease can significantly reduce the global burden of this
disease.
Speech comprehension and production are governed by control processes. We explore their nature and
dynamics in bilingual speakers with a focus on speech production. Prior research indicates that
individuals increase cognitive control in order to achieve a desired goal. In the adaptive control
hypothesis we propose a stronger hypothesis: Language control processes themselves adapt to the
recurrent demands placed on them by the interactional context. Adapting a control process means
changing a parameter or parameters about the way it works (its neural capacity or efficiency) or the way
it works in concert, or in cascade, with other control processes (e.g., its connectedness). We distinguish
eight control processes (goal maintenance, conflict monitoring, interference suppression, salient cue
detection, selective response inhibition, task disengagement, task engagement, opportunistic planning).
We consider the demands on these processes imposed by three interactional contexts (single language,
dual language, and dense code-switching). We predict adaptive changes in the neural regions and circuits
associated with specific control processes. A dual-language context, for example, is predicted to lead to
the adaptation of a circuit mediating a cascade of control processes that circumvents a control dilemma.
Effective test of the adaptive control hypothesis requires behavioural and neuroimaging work that
assesses language control in a range of tasks within the same individual.
Three studies compared bilinguals to monolinguals on 15 indicators of executive processing (EP). Most of the indicators compare a neutral or congruent baseline to a condition that should require EP. For each of the measures there was no main effect of group and a highly significant main effect of condition. The critical marker for a bilingual advantage, the Group×Condition interaction, was significant for only one indicator, but in a pattern indicative of a bilingual disadvantage. Tasks include antisaccade (Study 1), Simon (Studies 1-3), flanker (Study 3), and color-shape switching (Studies 1-3). The two groups performed identically on the Raven's Advanced Matrices test (Study 3). Analyses on the combined data selecting subsets that are precisely matched on parent's educational level or that include only highly fluent bilinguals reveal exactly the same pattern of results. A problem reconfirmed by the present study is that effects assumed to be indicators of a specific executive process in one task (e.g., inhibitory control in the flanker task) frequently do not predict individual differences in that same indicator on a related task (e.g., inhibitory control in the Simon task). The absence of consistent cross-task correlations undermines the interpretation that these are valid indicators of domain-general abilities. In a final discussion the underlying rationale for hypothesizing bilingual advantages in executive processing based on the special linguistic demands placed on bilinguals is interrogated.
Recent behavioral data have shown that lifelong bilingualism can maintain youthful cognitive control abilities in aging. Here, we provide the first direct evidence of a neural basis for the bilingual cognitive control boost in aging. Two experiments were conducted, using a perceptual task-switching paradigm, including a total of 110 participants. In Experiment 1, older adult bilinguals showed better perceptual switching performance than their monolingual peers. In Experiment 2, younger and older adult monolinguals and bilinguals completed the same perceptual task-switching experiment while functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) was performed. Typical age-related performance reductions and fMRI activation increases were observed. However, like younger adults, bilingual older adults outperformed their monolingual peers while displaying decreased activation in left lateral frontal cortex and cingulate cortex. Critically, this attenuation of age-related over-recruitment associated with bilingualism was directly correlated with better task-switching performance. In addition, the lower blood oxygenation level-dependent response in frontal regions accounted for 82% of the variance in the bilingual task-switching reaction time advantage. These results suggest that lifelong bilingualism offsets age-related declines in the neural efficiency for cognitive control processes.
The regular use of two languages by bilingual individuals has been shown to have a broad impact on language and cognitive functioning. In this monograph, we consider four aspects of this influence. In the first section, we examine differences between mono-linguals and bilinguals in children's acquisition of language and adults' linguistic processing, particularly in terms of lexical retrieval. Children learning two languages from birth follow the same milestones for language acquisition as mono-linguals do (first words, first use of grammar) but may use different strategies for language acquisition, and they generally have a smaller vocabulary in each language than do monolin-gual children learning only a single language. Adult bilinguals typically take longer to retrieve individual words than monolin-guals do, and they generate fewer words when asked to satisfy a constraint such as category membership or initial letter. In the second section, we consider the impact of bilingualism on nonverbal cognitive processing in both children and adults. The primary effect in this case is the enhancement of executive control functions in bilinguals. On tasks that require inhibition of distract-ing information, switching between tasks, or holding information in mind while performing a task, bilinguals of all ages outperform comparable monolinguals. A plausible reason is that bilinguals recruit control processes to manage their ongoing linguistic per-formance and that these control processes become enhanced for other unrelated aspects of cognitive processing. Preliminary evi-dence also suggests that the executive control advantage may even mitigate cognitive decline in older age and contribute to cognitive reserve, which in turn may postpone Alzheimer's disease. In the third section, we describe the brain networks that are responsible for language processing in bilinguals and demon-strate their involvement in nonverbal executive control for bilinguals. We begin by reviewing neuroimaging research that identifies the networks used for various nonverbal executive control tasks in the literature. These networks are used as a ref-erence point to interpret the way in which bilinguals perform both verbal and nonverbal control tasks. The results show that bilinguals manage attention to their two language systems using the same networks that are used by monolinguals performing nonverbal tasks. In the fourth section, we discuss the special circumstances that surround the referral of bilingual children (e.g., language delays) and adults (e.g., stroke) for clinical intervention. These referrals are typically based on standardized assessments that use normative data from monolingual populations, such as vocabulary size and lexical retrieval. As we have seen, however, these measures are often different for bilinguals, both for children and adults. We discuss the implications of these linguistic differences for standardized test performance and clinical approaches. We conclude by considering some questions that have important public policy implications. What are the pros and cons of French or Spanish immersion educational programs, for example? Also, if bilingualism confers advantages in certain respects, how about three languages—do the benefits increase? In the healthcare field, how can current knowledge help in the treatment of bilingual aphasia patients following stroke? Given the recent increase in bilingualism as a research topic, answers to these and other related questions should be available in the near future.
Decline in executive function has been noted in the prodromal stage of Alzheimer's disease (AD) and may presage more global cognitive declines. In this prospective longitudinal study, five measures of executive function were used to predict subsequent global cognitive decline in initially nondemented older adults. Of 71 participants, 15 demonstrated significant decline over a 1-year period on the Dementia Rating Scale (Mattis, 1988) and the remaining participants remained stable. In the year before decline, the decline group performed significantly worse than the no-decline group on two measures of executive function: the Color-Word Interference Test (CWIT; inhibition/switching condition) and Verbal Fluency (VF; switching condition). In contrast, decliners and non-decliners performed similarly on measures of spatial fluency (Design Fluency switching condition), spatial planning (Tower Test), and number-letter switching (Trail Making Test switching condition). Furthermore, the CWIT inhibition-switching measure significantly improved the prediction of decline and no-decline group classification beyond that of learning and memory measures. These findings suggest that some executive function measures requiring inhibition and switching provide predictive utility of subsequent global cognitive decline independent of episodic memory and may further facilitate early detection of dementia.
Monitoring and controlling 2 language systems is fundamental to language use in bilinguals. Here, we reveal in a combined
functional (event-related functional magnetic resonance imaging) and structural neuroimaging (voxel-based morphometry) study
that dorsal anterior cingulate cortex (ACC), a structure tightly bound to domain-general executive control functions, is a
common locus for language control and resolving nonverbal conflict. We also show an experience-dependent effect in the same
region: Bilinguals use this structure more efficiently than monolinguals to monitor nonlinguistic cognitive conflicts. They
adapted better to conflicting situations showing less ACC activity while outperforming monolinguals. Importantly, for bilinguals,
brain activity in the ACC, as well as behavioral measures, also correlated positively with local gray matter volume. These
results suggest that early learning and lifelong practice of 2 languages exert a strong impact upon human neocortical development.
The bilingual brain adapts better to resolve cognitive conflicts in domain-general cognitive tasks.
Much of the research on delaying the onset of symptoms of Alzheimer's disease (AD) has focused on pharmacotherapy, but environmental factors have also been acknowledged to play a significant role. Bilingualism may be one factor contributing to 'cognitive reserve' (CR) and therefore to a delay in symptom onset. If bilingualism is protective, then the brains of bilinguals should show greater atrophy in relevant areas, since their enhanced CR enables them to function at a higher level than would be predicted from their level of disease. We analyzed a number of linear measurements of brain atrophy from the computed tomography (CT) scans of monolingual and bilingual patients diagnosed with probable AD who were matched on level of cognitive performance and years of education. Bilingual patients with AD exhibited substantially greater amounts of brain atrophy than monolingual patients in areas traditionally used to distinguish AD patients from healthy controls, specifically, the radial width of the temporal horn and the temporal horn ratio. Other measures of brain atrophy were comparable for the two groups. Bilingualism appears to contribute to increased CR, thereby delaying the onset of AD and requiring the presence of greater amounts of neuropathology before the disease is manifest.
Alzheimer's disease (AD) is the most common neurodegenerative disorder. Worldwide prevalence of the disease is estimated at more than 24 million cases. With aging of populations, this number will likely increase to more than 80 million cases by the year 2040. The annual incidence worldwide is estimated at 4.6 million cases which is the equivalent of one new case every seven seconds! The pathophysiology of AD is complex and largely misunderstood. It is thought to start with the accumulation of beta-amyloid (αβ) that leads to deposition of insoluble neuritic or senile plaques. Secondary events in this "amyloid cascade" include hyperphosphorylation of the protein tau into neurofibrillary tangles, inflammation, oxidation, and excitotoxicity that eventually cause activation of apoptotis, cell death and neurotransmitter deficits. This review will briefly summarize recent advances in the pathophysiology of AD and focus on the pharmacological treatment of the cognitive and functional symptoms of AD. It will discuss the roles of vascular prevention, cholinesterase inhibitors and an NMDA-antagonist in the management of AD. It will address the issues thought to be related to the lack of persistence or discontinuation of therapy with cholinesterase inhibitors shown in recent studies and some of the solutions proposed. These include setting realistic expectations in light of a neurodegenerative condition and available symptomatic treatments, slowly titrating medications, and using alternate routes of administration. Finally, it will introduce future therapeutic options currently under study.
01-02-02 The goal was to forecast the global burden of Alzheimer’s disease and evaluate the potential impact of interventions that delay disease onset or progression.
Within the current debates on cognitive reserve, cognitive aging and dementia, showing increasingly a positive effect of mental, social and physical activities on health in older age, bilingualism remains one of the most controversial issues. Some reasons for it might be social or even ideological. However, one of the most important genuine problems facing bilingualism research is the high number of potential confounding variables. Bilingual communities often differ from monolingual ones in a range of genetic and environmental variables. In addition, within the same population, bilingual individuals could be different from the outset from those who remain monolingual. We discuss the most common confounding variables in the study of bilingualism, aging and dementia, such as group heterogeneity, migration, social factors, differences in general intelligence and the related issue of reverse causality. We describe different ways in which they can be minimized by the choice of the studied populations and the collected data. In this way, the emerging picture of the interaction between bilingualism and cognitive aging becomes more complex, but also more convincing.
Background and purpose:
Bilingualism has been associated with slower cognitive aging and a later onset of dementia. In this study, we aimed to determine whether bilingualism also influences cognitive outcome after stroke.
Methods:
We examined 608 patients with ischemic stroke from a large stroke registry and studied the role of bilingualism in predicting poststroke cognitive impairment in the absence of dementia.
Results:
A larger proportion of bilinguals had normal cognition compared with monolinguals (40.5% versus 19.6%; P<0.0001), whereas the reverse was noted in patients with cognitive impairment, including vascular dementia and vascular mild cognitive impairment (monolinguals 77.7% versus bilinguals 49.0%; P<0.0009). There were no differences in the frequency of aphasia (monolinguals 11.8% versus bilinguals 10.5%; P=0.354). Bilingualism was found to be an independent predictor of poststroke cognitive impairment.
Conclusions:
Our results suggest that bilingualism leads to a better cognitive outcome after stroke, possibly by enhancing cognitive reserve.
Purpose of review:
We discuss the role of bilingualism as a source of cognitive reserve and we propose the putative neural mechanisms through which lifelong bilingualism leads to a neural reserve that delays the onset of dementia.
Recent findings:
Recent findings highlight that the use of more than one language affects the human brain in terms of anatomo-structural changes. It is noteworthy that recent evidence from different places and cultures throughout the world points to a significant delay of dementia onset in bilingual/multilingual individuals. This delay has been reported not only for Alzheimer's dementia and its prodromal mild cognitive impairment phase, but also for other dementias such as vascular and fronto-temporal dementia, and was found to be independent of literacy, education and immigrant status.
Summary:
Lifelong bilingualism represents a powerful cognitive reserve delaying the onset of dementia by approximately 4 years. As to the causal mechanism, because speaking more than one language heavily relies upon executive control and attention, brain systems handling these functions are more developed in bilinguals resulting in increases of gray and white matter densities that may help protect from dementia onset. These neurocognitive benefits are even more prominent when second language proficiency and exposure are kept high throughout life.
Objective.
—Several cross-sectional studies have found an association between Alzheimer's disease (AD) and limited educational experience. It has been difficult to establish whether educational experience is a risk factor for AD because educational attainment can influence performance on diagnostic tests. This study was designed to determine whether limited educational level and occupational attainment are risk factors for incident dementia.Design.
—Cohort incidence study.Setting.
—General community.Participants.
—A total of 593 nondemented individuals aged 60 years or older who were listed in a registry of individuals at risk for dementia in North Manhattan, NY, were identified and followed up.Interventions.
—We reexamined subjects 1 to 4 years later with the identical standardized neurological and neuropsychological measures.Main Outcome Measure.
—Incident dementia.Results.
—We used Cox proportional hazards models, adjusting for age and gender, to estimate the relative risk (RR) of incident dementia associated with low educational and occupational attainment. Of the 593 subjects, 106 became demented; all but five of these met research criteria for AD. The risk of dementia was increased in subjects with either low education (RR, 2.02; 95% confidence interval [CI], 1.33 to 3.06) or low lifetime occupational attainment (RR, 2.25; 95% CI, 1.32 to 3.84). Risk was greatest for subjects with both low education and low life-time occupational attainment (RR, 2.87; 95% CI, 1.32 to 3.84).Conclusions.
—The data suggest that increased educational and occupational attainment may reduce the risk of incident AD, either by decreasing ease of clinical detection of AD or by imparting a reserve that delays the onset of clinical manifestations.(JAMA. 1994;271:1004-1010)
Background: The effectiveness of the 5 U.S. Food and Drug Administration-approved pharmacologic therapies for dementias in achieving clinically relevant improvements is unclear. Purpose: To review the evidence for the effectiveness of cholinesterase inhibitors (donepezil, galantamine, rivastigmine, and tacrine) and the neuropeptide-modifying agent memantine in achieving clinically relevant improvements, primarily in cognition, global function, behavior, and quality of life, for patients with dementia. Data Sources: Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials, MEDLINE, PREMEDLINE, EMBASE, Allied and Complementary Medicine Database, CINAHL, AgeLine, and PsycINFO from January 1986 through November 2006. Study Selection: English-language randomized, controlled trials were included in the review if they evaluated pharmacologic agents for adults with a diagnosis of dementia, did not use a crossover design, and had a quality score of at least 3 on the Jadad scale. Data Extraction: Data were extracted on study characteristics and outcomes, including adverse events. Effect sizes were calculated and data were combined when appropriate. Data Synthesis: 96 publications representing 59 unique studies were eligible for this review. Both cholinesterase inhibitors and memantine had consistent effects in the domains of cognition and global assessment, but summary estimates showed small effect sizes. Outcomes in the domains of behavior and quality of life were evaluated less frequently and showed less consistent effects. Most studies were of short duration (6 months), which limited their ability to detect delay in onset or progression of dementia. Three studies directly compared different cholinesterase inhibitors and found no differences in cognition and behavior. Limitations: Limitations of available studies included short duration, inclusion of only patients with mild to moderate Alzheimer disease, poor reporting of adverse events, lack of clear definitions for statistical significance, limited evaluation of behavior and quality-of-life outcomes, and limited direct comparison of different treatments. Conclusions: Treatment of dementia with cholinesterase inhibitors and memantine can result in statistically significant but clinically marginal improvement in measures of cognition and global assessment of dementia.
Cognitive complaints are common in the geriatric population. Older adults should routinely be asked about any concerns about their memory or thinking, and any cognitive complaint from the patient or an informant should be evaluated rather than be attributed to aging. Several screening instruments are available to document objective impairments and guide further evaluation. Management goals for patients with cognitive impairment are focused on maintaining function and independence, providing caregiver support, and advance care planning. There are currently no treatments to effectively prevent or treat dementia. Increasing appreciation of the heterogeneity of Alzheimer disease may lead to novel treatment approaches.
Copyright © 2015 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
We present a study examining cognitive functions in late non-balanced bilinguals with different levels of second language proficiency. We examined in two experiments a total of 193 mono- and bilingual university students. We assessed different aspects of attention (sustained, selective and attentional switching), verbal fluency (letter and category) as well as picture-word association as a measure of language proficiency. In Experiment 2 we also compared students in their first/initial (Y1) and fourth/final (Y4) year of either language or literature studies. There were no differences between both groups in category fluency. In selective attention, bilinguals outperformed monolinguals in Y1 and this difference remained significant in Y4 despite overall improvement in both groups. Contrasting results were found in attentional switching and letter fluency: while no differences were found in Y1 in both tasks, in Y4 there was an advantage for bilinguals in attentional switching and for monolinguals in letter fluency. We conclude that overall late-acquisition non-balanced bilinguals experience similar cognitive effects as their early-acquisition balanced counterparts. However, different cognitive effects may appear at different stages of adult second language acquisition.
Copyright © 2015 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
A growing body of research has reported a bilingual advantage in performance on executive control tasks, but it is not known at what point in emerging bilingualism these advantages first appear. The present study investigated the effect of early stage second-language training on executive control. Monolingual English-speaking students were tested on a go-nogo task, sentence judgment task, and verbal fluency, before and after 6 months of Spanish instruction. The training group (n = 25) consisted of students enrolled in introductory Spanish and the control group (n = 30) consisted of students enrolled in introductory Psychology. After training, the Spanish group showed larger P3 amplitude on the go-nogo task and smaller P600 amplitude on the judgment task, indicating enhanced performance, with no changes for the control group and no differences between groups on behavioral measures. Results are discussed in terms of neural changes underlying executive control after brief second-language learning.
The brain has an extraordinary ability to functionally and physically change or reconfigure its structure in response to environmental stimulus, cognitive demand, or behavioral experience. This property, known as neuroplasticity, has been examined extensively in many domains. But how does neuroplasticity occur in the brain as a function of an individual's experience with a second language? It is not until recently that we have gained some understanding of this question by examining the anatomical changes as well as functional neural patterns that are induced by the learning and use of multiple languages. In this article we review emerging evidence regarding how structural neuroplasticity occurs in the brain as a result of one’s bilingual experience. Our review aims at identifying the processes and mechanisms that drive experience-dependent anatomical changes, and integrating structural imaging data with current knowledge of functional neural plasticity of language and other cognitive skills. The evidence reviewed so far portrays a picture that is highly consistent with structural neuroplasticity observed for other domains: second language experience-induced brain changes, including increased gray matter density and white matter integrity, can be found in children, young adults, and the elderly; can occur rapidly with short-term language learning or training; and are sensitive to age, age of acquisition, proficiency or performance level, language-specific characteristics, and individual differences. We conclude with a theoretical perspective on neuroplasticity in language and bilingualism, and point to future directions for research.
The purpose of the study was to determine the association between bilingualism and age at onset of dementia and its subtypes, taking into account potential confounding factors.
Case records of 648 patients with dementia (391 of them bilingual) diagnosed in a specialist clinic were reviewed. The age at onset of first symptoms was compared between monolingual and bilingual groups. The influence of number of languages spoken, education, occupation, and other potentially interacting variables was examined.
Overall, bilingual patients developed dementia 4.5 years later than the monolingual ones. A significant difference in age at onset was found across Alzheimer disease dementia as well as frontotemporal dementia and vascular dementia, and was also observed in illiterate patients. There was no additional benefit to speaking more than 2 languages. The bilingual effect on age at dementia onset was shown independently of other potential confounding factors such as education, sex, occupation, and urban vs rural dwelling of subjects.
This is the largest study so far documenting a delayed onset of dementia in bilingual patients and the first one to show it separately in different dementia subtypes. It is the first study reporting a bilingual advantage in those who are illiterate, suggesting that education is not a sufficient explanation for the observed difference. The findings are interpreted in the context of the bilingual advantages in attention and executive functions.
Bilingual experience is dynamic and poses a challenge for researchers to develop instruments that capture its relevant dimensions. The present study examined responses from a questionnaire administered to 110 heterogeneous bilingual young adults. These questions concern participants' language use, acquisition history and self-reported proficiency. The questionnaire responses and performances on standardized English proficiency measures were analyzed using factor analysis. In order to retain a realistic representation of bilingual experience, the factors were allowed to correlate with each other in the analysis. Two correlating factors were extracted, representing daily bilingual usage and English proficiency. These two factors were also related to self-rated proficiency in English and non-English language. Results were interpreted as supporting the notion that bilingual experience is composed of multiple related dimensions that will need to be considered in assessments of the consequences of bilingualism.
Previous research has shown that bilingual children perform better than comparable monolinguals on tasks requiring control of attention to inhibit misleading information. The present paper reports a series of studies that traces this processing difference into adulthood and eventually aging. The task used in all groups, from children to older adults, is the Simon task, a measure of stimulus-response incompatibility. The results showed that bilinguals performed better than monolinguals in early childhood, adulthood, and later adulthood. There was no difference in performance between monolinguals and bilinguals who were young adults, specifically university undergraduates. Our interpretation is that performance is at its peak efficiency for that group and bilingualism offers no further boost. The results are discussed in terms of the effect of bilingualism on control of attention and inhibition through the lifespan.
Performance on measures of working memory (WM) capacity predicts performance on a wide range of real-world cognitive tasks. I review the idea that WM capacity (a) is separable from short-term memory, (b) is an important component of general fluid intelligence, and (c) represents a domain-free limitation in ability to control attention. Studies show that individual differences in WM capacity are reflected in performance on antisaccade, Stroop, and dichotic-listening tasks. WM capacity, or executive attention, is most important under conditions in which interference leads to retrieval of response tendencies that conflict with the current task.
