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Something most of us left behind at school is great for slowing down brain aging

5 days ago New York State Comments Off on Something most of us left behind at school is great for slowing down brain aging

New research has found that being multilingual can help slow brain aging — yes, that Spanish class at school might have been important for the future. As we all live longer there are new opportunities, but also new challenges for us in our older age, especially the higher risk of age-related decline. Many adults struggle with memory issues and attention spans — though, notably, not everyone experiences such problems. (Picture: Getty)
Researchers are, of course, extremely interested in understanding why it is that some people stay so mentally sharp while others have problems much sooner, and deteriorate more quickly. Many turn to maths or linguistic puzzles, like crosswords and sudoku, and there’s definitely merit in trying these out – though there is still debate on whether crosswords actually do exercise our brains. An idea that has growing interest is that those who are multilingual – able to speak more than one language – might have an advantage over others when retaining brain cognition. (Picture: Getty)
Publishing in Nature Aging, colleagues at the Global Brain Health Institute in Trinity College, Dublin, conducted a study which adds to this theory, which suggests speaking more than one language not only boosts cognition, but could slow brain aging. The study included more than 86,000 people across 27 European countries. (Picture: Getty)
This study observed a small gap between brain age and biological age in those who spoke one language, however an advantage — dubbed ‘modest’ – was noted for bilingual participants. A negative gap meant someone appeared younger than their biological age. A positive gap meant they appeared older.(Picture: Getty)
The authors observed that speaking additional languages promoted delayed aging over time and found a dose-dependent effect of speaking multiple languages— the more languages one spoke, the slower they aged. So, while taking up a language later in life might seem difficult, it could ultimately be worth it both as a new skill when you’re younger, and later in life. (Picture: Getty)
The data showed that the protective effect of multilingualism remained significant even when they adjusted for age, and for different physical, social, and sociopolitical exposures. It’s another great reason to learn a new language, bring a child up in a billingual household, or try to learn your partner’s language, if applicable.
Previous research has already proposed that multilingualism can help maintain cognitive function, but evidence seems to have been inconsistent owing to the use of small sample sizes, clinical cohorts, and indirect measures of ageing.

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