Nursing Home Blog
« GPS Shoes Used to Help Locate… | Back to all posts | There is Something Universal About Caregiving»
Bilingualism and Alzheimers
Posted on Thu, October 20, 2011 at 9:20 pm
Cortex journal published an article from lead researcher and neuroscientist Tom Schweizer (University of Toronto) looking at the relationship between bilingualism and Alzheimers. Comparing CT scans of bilingual and unilingual participants with comparable levels of education and cognitive skills, both groups produced similar results even though bilingual participants had twice as much brain atropy. Schweizer noted that bilingual individuals are constantly using their brain to switch languages and suppress one language in order to speak the other, therefore, by speaking more than one language the brain makes better networks or pathways which help compensate when an area of the brain is destroyed due to Alzheimers. Therefore, the onset of Alzheimers was delayed in bilingual participants. What is not clear is whether or not the disease progresses at the same rate once the symptoms are present. Yet another reason why older adults need to stay mentally stimulated.
« GPS Shoes Used to Help Locate… | Back to all posts | There is Something Universal About Caregiving»
