According to the study, the effect was more noticeable among people who started learning a second language at a younger age and achieved greater proficiency in it.
Multilingualism and Brain Age
The research was presented by Dr. Lucia Amoruso of the Basque Center on Cognition, Brain and Language in San Sebastian, Spain. Researchers from the Adolfo Ibáñez University in Chile, Universidad de San Andrés in Argentina and Trinity College Dublin in Ireland also contributed to the study.
The research team had previously conducted a study suggesting that people living in multilingual environments may experience slower brain aging.
The latest study examined residents of Spain’s Basque region, where people speak between one and four languages, including Spanish, Basque, French and English.
A “Clock” to Measure Brain Age
Researchers initially studied 728 people and developed a “brain age clock” to assess the aging process of the brain. They used magnetoencephalography (MEG), a technology that measures the extremely weak magnetic fields produced by brain activity.
Artificial intelligence (AI) was then used to analyze patterns of brain activity across people of different ages, allowing researchers to identify typical patterns of brain connectivity at different stages of life.
The brain-age clock was subsequently applied to a separate group of 144 people to estimate their brain age.
The results showed an interesting difference. The brains of people who spoke two languages appeared to be approximately six years younger than those of people who spoke only one language.
For people who spoke three languages, the difference was around seven years, while the brains of those who spoke four languages appeared to be approximately 13 years younger than their actual age.
According to lead researcher Dr. Lucia Amoruso, in simple terms, the brains of multilingual people appear younger than would normally be expected for their chronological age.
Age and Proficiency Also Matter
Researchers found that the difference in brain age was not limited to the number of languages a person could speak. Greater proficiency and learning a second language at a younger age were also associated with slower brain aging.
The findings suggest that multilingual experience has a cumulative effect. In other words, simply knowing two languages may not be enough; the length of time a person has used them, the age at which they began learning another language and their level of proficiency may all play a role.
More Research Planned
Dr. Amoruso and her colleagues now plan to conduct further research to determine whether similar effects of multilingualism can be observed in people with neurodegenerative diseases, particularly Alzheimer’s disease.
Researchers also want to find out whether speaking two or more closely related languages could have a stronger effect on the brain.
According to the researchers, frequently switching between similar languages may require greater cognitive control because speakers have to manage competing words and linguistic systems at the same time.
