A new study has revealed a potentially life-changing benefit of language learning: individuals who are multilingual may experience brain ageing at least 13 years slower than their monolingual counterparts. The research, presented at the Federation of European Neuroscience Societies conference in Barcelona, observed significant links between language proficiency and cognitive age.
The study involved 728 participants from the highly multilingual Basque region, using magnetoencephalography to measure brain activity and comparing it with benchmarks for different ages. Researchers found that people speaking two languages had brains that seemed approximately six years younger than those speaking only one. This effect was amplified for those with a broader linguistic repertoire: individuals speaking three languages showed brains appearing around seven years younger, while those fluent in four languages exhibited brains that seemed about 13 years younger.
The study's lead researcher, Dr Lucia Amoruso from the Basque Center on Cognition, Brain and Language, highlighted the importance of language proficiency and early acquisition. 'It's not just being bilingual,' she explained, 'but also the depth of linguistic experience that contributes to delayed brain ageing.' Factors such as age, sex, and education were accounted for in the study.
Experts have welcomed the findings, with Professor Christina Dalla from the National and Kapodistrian University of Athens encouraging language learning at any age. However, Professor Eef Hogervorst from Loughborough University cautioned that multilingual individuals may engage in other brain-protective activities that contribute to their cognitive resilience.