Concordia University researchers find bilingualism may help maintain brain volume in the hippocampus, potentially delaying Alzheimer’s progression. This discovery highlights the cognitive benefits of speaking multiple languages.
New research from Concordia University offers promising insights into how speaking multiple languages can bolster cognitive resilience against Alzheimer’s disease. In a groundbreaking study, researchers used neuroimaging techniques to compare the brains of monolingual and bilingual older adults across different stages of cognitive decline.
Published in the journal Bilingualism: Language and Cognition, the study revealed that bilingual individuals with Alzheimer’s disease showed significantly larger hippocampal volumes compared to their monolingual counterparts.
The hippocampus is a critical brain region associated with learning and memory and is highly susceptible to Alzheimer’s.
“There was greater brain matter in the hippocampus, which is the main region in the brain for learning and memory and is highly affected by Alzheimer’s,” lead author Kristina Coulter, a doctoral candidate at Concordia, said in a news release.
The researchers evaluated the brain characteristics of cognitively normal older adults, those at risk for cognitive decline and individuals diagnosed with Alzheimer’s. Astonishingly, they found that while monolinguals experienced notable hippocampal atrophy as the disease progressed, bilinguals did not show such changes.
“The brain volume in the Alzheimer’s-related area was the same across the healthy older adults, the two risk states and the Alzheimer’s disease group in the bilingual participants,” Coulter added. “This suggests that there may be some form of brain maintenance related to bilingualism.”
The concept of brain resilience encompasses three components: brain maintenance, brain reserve and cognitive reserve.
Brain maintenance refers to the brain’s ability to preserve its form and function with age. Factors like mental stimulation through bilingualism, a healthy diet, regular exercise, quality sleep and good sensory health contribute to this maintenance.
Brain reserve relates to the brain’s size and structural capacity to perform normal functions despite age-related damage.
Cognitive reserve involves the brain’s ability to utilize alternative neural pathways to sustain functionality, even with aging-related shrinkage or damage.
Despite the significant findings, Coulter noted that bilingualism did not affect brain reserve in language-related areas or cognitive reserve in Alzheimer’s-affected regions. Still, the overall cognitive and social engagement stemming from bilingualism supports brain health.
“Speaking more than one language is one of several ways to be cognitively and socially engaged, which promotes brain health,” co-author Natalie Phillips, a professor of psychology and the Concordia University Research Chair (Tier 1) in Sensory-Cognitive Health in Aging and Dementia, said in the news release. “This research study was unique in that it was able to look at the potential influence of being bilingual on brain structure across the continuum of dementia risk, ranging from individuals who were cognitively normal, to those who are at higher risk of developing Alzheimer’s, to those who actually have the disease.”
The study’s data were gathered from the Comprehensive Assessment of Neurodegeneration and Dementia Study (COMPASS-ND) and the Consortium for the Early Identification of Alzheimer’s Disease-Quebec (CIMA-Q).
Future research by the Concordia team will explore whether multilingualism provides similar cognitive benefits across different brain networks.