3 ms·

Hate to burst your bubble, but Belgium (where very nearly everyone is multilingual) has roughly the same dementia rate as the UK (where, you know, people tend t

• capitainenemo 2y ago
  The studies I've read on bilingualism state that it delays onset by a few years, not that it prevents it. Let me duck for a cite though... Here's one "Recent meta-analyses report that active bilingualism is related to later onset of symptoms and, thus, diagnosis of dementia by as much as 5–7 years relative to comparable monolinguals, despite brains in both cases accruing increased pathology similarly" https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC8847162/ https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC8847162/ It also notes.. "However, as outlined below, simply being bi- or multilingual it is not sufficient for protection against cognitive decline, otherwise, a clear majority of the world’s population would be equally protected (considering that more than half of the world population speaks more than one language; De Houwer, 2021). It is important to keep in mind that only certain types of so-called ′active ′ bilingualism will have the maximum effect upon brain health, i.e., those who are amply exposed to their languages, use them regularly and are otherwise highly engaged in contexts that require linguistic switching."
  • capitainenemo 2y ago
    (that 5-7 years is "maximum effect" there are others that simply using two to some degree adds a few years of brain health - and that might be mentioned elsewhere in this meta analysis)