Speaking two languages fluently is not only useful when traveling or at work. Being bilingual would also have an interest in mental health. Researchers at the University of Kentucky College of Medicine have found that adults who have been bilingual since they were children have better “cognitive flexibility.” The study, published in the the Journal of Neuroscience, suggests that the benefits of bilingualism on the functioning of the frontal lobe of the brain would be more visible as we age “.
The experiment was carried out on 110 adults aged between 60 and 68 years. They were subjected to brain tests to assess their cognitive flexibility. Some of the volunteers spoke only one language, while the others had been bilingual from childhood.
As a result, the bilingual participants were able to perform the exercises faster than the others. Scans have shown that the prefrontal cortex of the brain of bilingual people expends less energy than in unilingual people.
Being bilingual preserves senility
A previous study found that speaking two languages could also protect the brain certain age-related illnesses such as Alzheimer’s.
In 2007, researchers at York University found that in a group of 184 patients with cognitive impairment, symptoms of senility appeared later in bilingual people (75 years compared to 71 years in unilingual people).
If knowing two languages could protect the brain, conversely the stress would make him age faster.