Research Shows Evidence That Bilingualism Delays the Brain's Aging Process

A study by the Singapore University of Technology and Design (SUDT) in the Journals of Gerontology: Psychological Sciences found that active bilingualism can guard against the brain's aging process, reports Medical Xpress . The investigators examined cognitively healthy seniors 60 to 84 years old who were bilingual in Chinese and English, and whom they tasked to complete various computerized executive control tasks. A more holistic examination measured six domains of executive control using four different tasks, which had previously been linked to bilingualism, while controlling for individual factors like age, processing speed, and fluid intelligence. Active usage of two languages with less frequent language switching anticipated better performance in goal maintenance and conflict monitoring aspects of executive control. This implies that bilingualism can cushion against cognitive decline in normal aging. "The effort involved in not switching between languages and 'staying' in the target language is more cognitively demanding than switching between languages while actively using both languages," said SUDT Professor Yow Wei Quin. "Our study shows that the seniors developed more efficient neural organization at brain regions related to language control, which also overlap with areas involved in executive control."