Bilingualism: The New Anti-Aging Secret for Your Brain?

Many of the benefits of having a bilingual brain are well-known. From improving career opportunities to, as one cynical friend of mine pointed out, expanding your dating pool to include people of more than one linguistic group, there’s no doubt about the many advantages of being bilingual.

What many of us aren’t aware of is the fact that bilingualism may also hold benefits for your brain’s everyday practical functioning and long-term health. An intriguing new study on the bilingual brain by researchers at Bangor University is hoping to delve deeper into just how much of an impact bilingualism can have on your brain’s health.

Get Gray Matter by Studying a Second Language

Although most of us want to avoid going gray, there’s one type of gray that we should be worried about retaining with age – the brain’s gray matter.  According to the Society of Neuroscience, studies have shown bilingual adults to have denser gray matter than monolinguals. What’s more, having a bilingual brain may actually protect the brain from aging and help prevent the onset of diseases like Alzheimer’s. How so?

You’ve probably heard that mental exercise with brain teasers, like crosswords and Sudoku, can keep your mind sharp as it ages. My grandmother completed at least one crossword puzzle every day until she died and based on the scathing on-point witticisms she managed to fire at her grandchildren until the end, I definitely am a firm believer in the benefits of brain teasers to keep your mind alert. It turns out that the exercise the mind gets from jumping back and forth between two tongues on a daily basis may be akin to the benefits of my grandmother’s daily crossword puzzle and can help prevent your brain’s decline in old age.

New Study to Further Explore the Bilingual Brain

A new Bangor University study on the bilingual brain aims to further explore some of the potential non-linguistic physiological assets of bilingualism. By asking study participants to complete tasks such as linguistic tests, puzzles and other types of brain teasers, the study hopes to provide new insight into the workings and development of the bilingual brain.

Although the study will focus on Welsh and English speakers, encompassing a field of about 700 individuals ranging from the tender age of two all the way to age 80, the results may well apply to all types of bilingual brains.

Does a Bilingual Brain Mean a Healthier Brain?

The mental, social and cultural benefits of bilingualism have long been recognized. Previous research has suggested that individuals who are already bilingual by the time they hit their teens benefit mentally and have an easier time learning additional languages later in life. This is one of many reasons why many US parents – including the likes of superstars Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie – are now raising bilingual children.

What makes the latest research significant, however, is the fact that it suggests that being bilingual not only has mental benefits as far as the brain’s functioning, but also impacts the brain’s overall health. As research gleaned from new studies like Bangor University’s continue to reveal the physiological benefits of the bilingual brain, our future motivations for studying a second language may be just as much health-related as anything else.