Having the ability to speak a second language may help stave off the onset of dementia, researchers reported last night.
A joint study involving Scottish and Indian researchers found that bilingual people tend to develop dementia five years later than others.
Researchers found that the benefits extended to people who were illiterate – suggesting they do not stem directly from formal education.
The findings, reported in the journal Neurology come from a study of some 648 people in India diagnosed with dementia. Some 391 of these were bilingual.
Researcher Dr Suvarna Alladi, of Nizam’s Institute of Medical Sciences, Hyderabad, India, said: “Our study is the first to report an advantage of speaking two languages in people who are unable to read, suggesting that a person’s level of education is not a sufficient explanation for this difference.
“Speaking more than one language is thought to lead to better development of the areas of the brain that handle executive functions and attention tasks, which may help protect from the onset of dementia.”
He added: “These results offer strong evidence for the protective effect of bilingualism against dementia in a population very different from those studied so far in terms of its ethnicity, culture and patterns of language use."
Fellow researcher Thomas Bak, of Edinburgh University, UK, said: "These findings suggest that bilingualism might have a stronger influence on dementia that any currently available drugs. This makes the study of the relationship between bilingualism and cognition one of our highest priorities."
Neurology 6 November 2013
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