Knowledge of a foreign language can prevent the development of Alzheimer's disease
Last reviewed: 23.04.2024
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Foreign language serves the brain as something of a constant charge, thanks to which a trained brain can compensate for the damage from the onset of Alzheimer's disease.
Canadian researchers from the University of Toronto have concluded that knowing a foreign language can delay the onset of symptoms of Alzheimer's disease. In their work, they made a tomographic scan of patients who had been diagnosed with the very first manifestations of the disease. All participants in the study had the same level of education and development of cognitive skills, such as memory, attention, planning ability, etc. But half of them fluent in the second language, others did not know a foreign language.
In an article published in the journal Cortex, scientists write about the discovery of unequivocal evidence that bilingual symptoms of Alzheimerism occur later. The areas of the brain, usually primarily affected by the disease, worked twice as intensively as could be expected in the presence of Alzheimer's syndrome.
According to scientists, such people support constant brain activity, switching from one language to another. As a result, when neurodegenerative processes begin, the brain has more opportunities to compensate for damage from failing neurons. Not only knowledge of foreign can benefit, but in general, any brain training - for good reason, doctors advise elderly people to practice crossword puzzles.
Previously published data that people who know foreign, the manifestation of symptoms of Alzheimer's disease may be delayed by five years. Now the researchers were able to get that direct neuroanatomical evidence. The authors of the article emphasize that a foreign language does not prevent the disease at all, but only slows its course. In the future, scientists intend to confirm their results and find out in more detail how knowledge of foreign interferes with Alzheimer's disease.
And it would be very interesting to know whether the same effect on the brain, for example, studies in higher mathematics or scientific activity. I would like to believe that science exercises train the brain and prepare it for a meeting with Alzheimer's syndrome no worse than knowing a foreign language.
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