How learning a language helps ward off dementia

LEARNING a second language can protect against dementia, research shows.

Alzheimer’s patients fluent in two or more languages had more grey matter in brain areas linked with memory, a study found. The Canadian researchers say being bilingual could act as a buffer to the condition, which affects 850,000 Britons.

They used MRI scans to compare the brains of almost 100 people with Alzheimer’s or mild cognitive impairment (MCI).

Professor Natalie Phillips, of Concordia University in Quebec, said: ‘Most of the previous research was conducted with healthy adults. Our new study contributes to the hypothesis that having two languages exercises specific brain regions and can increase cortical thickness and grey matter density.’

The study examined 13 Alzheimer’s and 34 MCI patients who spoke only one language and the same number who were multilingual, focusing on the cognition areas of the brain.

The findings, published in Neuropsychologia, shed light on how learning languages improves ‘neuroplasticity’ – the brain’s ability to change, which wards off memory loss.