Learning Languages delays memory Loss
April 14th 2008 05:36
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BUT STUDY MAY CONTAIN FLAWS
An Israeli study has found that multilingual people are less likely to experience memory loss and senility in advanced age.
The study, whose findings were recently published in the American journal "Psychology and Aging," found that multilingual people were cognitively much stronger in old age.
The study says it gives consideration to Western countries including Australia - where most people, if they are not immigrants or linguists - speak only one language.
"A person who speaks more languages is likely to be more clearly minded in older age," said Tel Aviv University researcher Gitit Kave.
The study was conducted at the University's Herzog Center for Aging Research.
"People who learn languages exercise their brain more. They create links to different parts of the brain which strengthens its resilience. Exerting the brain makes it more flexible so that multilingual people acquire a greater cognitive reserve which immunes the brain against senility or dementia," Kave told Haaretz.
The study was based on a survey in 1989 of persons aged between 75 and 95. Each individual was asked how many languages he or she knows, which was their mother tongue and what language they spoke best. They were asked questions on a range of subjects including where they had studied them and what language they most frequently spoke.
The participants in the study were given a short cognitive examination to test their clarity for memory and understanding, repeated with each interview.
The participants were divided into bilinguals, tri-linguals and multilinguals. In each case when their knowledge of languages was compared with the results of their cognitive test - it was found that a person who knows more languages reaches old age in a better cognitive state.
"Even people who lacked a formal education but during their lifetime acquired knowledge of more than one language were more clearly minded in old age," Kave said.
"The more clearly minded were also people who knew more languages." This was especially true of people who had no formal education.
The researchers admit that the study contains several flaws which may question their findings.
The team had inadequate biographical data relating to the family and social background in which their participants had studied their languages or how well they knew them or how frequently they spoke them, Kave said on Israel Radio.
Nor had any comparison been made with the influence of other disciplines like physics or mathematics on clear mindedness in old age.
"People who regularly solve cross world puzzles also exercise their brain which can strengthen memory in old age," Kave said.
"I personally can't do them. But people should do what they like best to keep their minds alert.
Taken from
copical/AU...Yehonathon Tommer| 55 |
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