Today, we see many children and adults who are encouraged to learn a second language or were raised in a bilingual environment. 요즈음 세대에서 대부분 아이들은 다양한 언어들 합니다. In my household, I grew up learning both Korean and English with Korean being more dominantly used. In college, we are often encouraged to learn a second language or third to keep up with globalization. Yet, language is very complicated in the way for some cultures your tongue may have a hard time rolling r’s, the difference in letters, or the tone of your voice is an important part of dictation. Yet, it is stated that after further review, they have found bilingualism contributes to the cognitive reserve and better memory generalization that protects an individual from a decline of executive control (Baumgart et al., 2017). “Positive Cognitive Effects of Bilingualism and Multilingualism on Cerebral Function: a Review,” emphasizes that other than being able to speak, write, or read in another language, it is clear that bilingualism has a large impact on cognitive change.
A big question that seems to pop up when discussing bilingualism is the possible differences between native speakers and second-language speakers. A person’s language acquisition is influenced by periods of pre-programmed molecular signals and sensory experience (Berken et al., 2016). Bilingual native speakers may manifest greater activation during speech, increased size in brain areas, and stronger connections because of neuroplasticity. When individuals try to think about another language, it requires more effort for lexical tasks and attentional control. Thus, inadvertently strengthening pathways and executive control skills (Baumgart et al., 2017). Bilingualism has a positive effect on executive control, but this raises the question of how else it could affect an individual’s brain when aging.
As many of our family members grow older, we often find ourselves worried about finding a way to protect our loved ones from cognitive decline. Some choose to encourage family members to read more books, play chess, or eat certain foods. As individuals age, the possibility of dementia or Alzheimer’s dementia all has a greater chance of occurring. This study, Bilingualism for Dementia: Neurological Mechanisms Associated with Functional and Structural Changes in the Brain (Kim et al., 2019) talks about a non-pharmacological approach to treating such diseases through cognitive stimulation. One cognitive stimulation activity to protect against any cognitive decline that occurs from neurogenerative diseases is bilingualism. It was shown that bilingualism can delay the onset of dementia symptoms by four to five years when compared to monolingual patients (Kim et al., 2019). Cognitive activities strengthen connections between neurons and bilingualism requires more neural processing. “Bilingual individuals generally perform better in tasks such as the attention network test, the Simon task, and the Stroop task than monolingual people,” (Kim et al., 2019). Formations of neural connections and structures occur as there is a higher need for managing phonology, semantics, syntax, and grammar (Kim et al., 2019).
Recent neuroimaging shows us that there is increased functional connectivity of brain regions. An investigation was done using voxel-based morphometry to understand how structural plasticity of grey matter density (GM) in the left inferior parietal region may be “proficiency of using a second language and inversely proportional to the age at acquisition of a second language” (Kim et al., 2019). From MRI results, they were able to find that the left inferior gyrus increased after. English-German exchange students studied in Germany for four years. This shows that using a second language can increase cortical thickness in the left middle frontal gyrus, inferior frontal gyrus, superior temporal gyrus, and volume of the left hippocampus as grey matter density (GM) plays a large role in neural reserve (Kim et al., 2019).
There is still so much to learn and understand about the effect of bilingualism on an individual’s brain. Especially as there are so many people who now speak more than two languages today. There is a clear positive effect of bilingualism as it heavily influences an individual’s executive control and neural reserve. Which could in turn allow for cognitive decline to slow from cognitive stimulation.
Literature Referenced
Berken, Jonathan A., et al. “Early Bilingualism, Language Attainment, and Brain Development.” Neuropsychologia, Pergamon, 1 Sept. 2016, https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0028393216303293?via%3Dihub.
Yip, Michael C. W. “Cognitive Consequences of Bilingualism and Multilingualism: Cross-Linguistic Influences - Journal of Psycholinguistic Research.” SpringerLink, Springer US, 12 Apr. 2021, https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10936-021-09779-y.
Quinteros Baumgart, Cibel, and Stephen Bates Billick. “Positive Cognitive Effects of Bilingualism and Multilingualism on Cerebral Function: A Review - Psychiatric Quarterly.” SpringerLink, Springer US, 11 Sept. 2017, https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s11126-017-9532-9.
Kim, Sujin, et al. “Bilingualism for Dementia: Neurological Mechanisms Associated with Functional and Structural Changes in the Brain.” Frontiers, Frontiers, 1 Jan. 1AD, https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fnins.2019.01224/full.
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