Studying a second language not only boosts your cognitive functions, but also leads to a healthier brain, a study reveals.
- In the elderly, learning a foreign language has as positive effects on cognition as brain training.
- In addition to the cognitive benefits, learning a second language is also a way for seniors to enrich themselves culturally and discover a new activity.
Learning a new language is not just about opening up to a new culture and a history different from your own. It’s also working your brain!
Previous work has already shown that bilingualism has a protective effect on brain health, by delaying the risk of dementia. But until now, researchers knew little about the cognitive impact of the process of learning a second language in people who do not become bilingual.
This is now done thanks to this study conducted jointly by Baycrest University and York University (Canada), and published in the journal Aging Neuropsychology and Cognition. According to its authors, older people who have studied Spanish show real improvements in some essential cognitive skills. These results are similar to those who engaged in brain training activities targeting these skills. With one difference: people who learned Spanish reported having more pleasure than those who took just one brain training.
“These findings are exciting because they indicate that older adults may derive cognitive benefits from an enjoyable activity that they might want to participate in, independent of those benefits.”says Dr. Jed Meltzer, lead author of the study.
Improved cognition
To reach this conclusion, the researchers recruited 76 adults aged 65 to 75, in good cognitive health and speaking only one language, which is not Spanish.
These participants were randomly assigned to one of three groups: language learning, brain training, or waitlist (no language learning or brain training), which served as a control group. For 16 weeks, participants in the language learning group spent 30 minutes a day, five days a week, learning Spanish through an online language learning app. Participants in the brain training group spent the same amount of time on a memory and logic exercise app.
The researchers assessed the participants’ performance on specific cognitive tasks before and after the 16 weeks. At the end of the intervention, they also measured participants’ adherence to the learning program and their appreciation of the program followed.
They found that participants in the language learning group had similar improvements to the brain training group in two areas of cognition: working memory and executive function, that is, ability to manage conflicting information, stay focused and avoid distractions. While the only brain-training group improved their processing speed, the language-learning group enjoyed the exercises more.
“Besides the cognitive benefits, learning a second language can enrich the lives of older people in other important ways, such as allowing them to form new friendships or opening doors to a new culture or new life. ‘a new journey, which helps them live their lives to the fullest’underlines Dr. Meltzer, who also participated in the work.
Now, researchers want to study the brain health effects of time-constrained language learning, to see if it could lead to improvements in processing speed similar to those of brain training.
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