Learning languages may keep the brain young, study finds
Speaking more than one language may help keep the brain young, according to a large European study of over 80,000 people. Published in Nature Aging this month, the research found that multilinguals were about half as likely to show signs of accelerated biological ageing as those who spoke only one language, Kazinform News Agency correspondent reports, citing Nature.
Earlier studies have suggested that multilingualism improves memory, attention, and overall cognitive flexibility, but most were based on small groups and inconsistent ageing measurements.
The study, led by neuroscientist Agustín Ibáñez of Adolfo Ibáñez University in Chile, analyzed data from participants aged 51 to 90 across 27 European countries, using a computational model to calculate each person’s “biobehavioural age gap.”
This metric compares someone’s chronological age to a predicted biological age, based on health, education, lifestyle, and socioeconomic indicators. A smaller gap suggests slower ageing.
When these results were compared with self-reported language data, a clear pattern emerged: those who spoke more than one language consistently showed lower biological ageing markers. The protective effect also grew stronger with the number of languages spoken.
“Just one additional language reduces the risk of accelerated ageing. But when you speak two or three this effect was larger,” says Ibáñez.
The study’s large and diverse dataset also allowed researchers to control for factors that have often complicated earlier work, such as immigration status or income level, strengthening the evidence that the benefits stem from multilingualism itself.
The authors hope the results will encourage policymakers to promote language learning as a tool for healthy ageing. Expanding such studies beyond Europe, Teubner-Rhodes added, could help determine whether similar effects appear in different cultural and linguistic settings.
Earlier, Kazinform News Agency reported that walking over 3,000 steps a day may delay Alzheimer’s by years.
