Learning Another Language May Be One of the Best Ways to Keep Your Brain Healthy

Learning Another Language May Be One of the Best Ways to Keep Your Brain Healthy. Language learning may not keep the brain young, but it can be a way to support cognitive resilience as people age. nicoletaionescu/iStock/Getty Images Plus A workout for the brain A person’s brain remains capable of change throughout their life.

What happened

Learning later in life This raises another question: If lifelong bilingualism may help protect the brain as we age, can people gain similar benefits by learning a language later in life? Perhaps the most useful way to think about language learning is not as a way to keep the brain young, but as a way to support cognitive resilience – the ability to keep learning, adapting and functioning despite the changes that come with age. DrAfter123/DigitalVision Vectors via Getty Images Learning another language is a highly complex mental activity.

Language learning might not seem like the same kind of brain exercise, but it is a complex activity that engages several mental processes at once. Learning another language can also create opportunities for communication and social connection. Language learning is a sustained challenge that keeps people learning, practicing and adapting. Learning another language can deepen cultural understanding, improve interpersonal communication and encourage people to empathize with other people’s perspectives and experiences.

The wider picture

Zöllner/ullstein bild via Getty Images Building cognitive resilience Learning another language is not a miracle cure for aging, and it cannot guarantee protection against Alzheimer’s disease or other forms of dementia. Dementia Brain Aging Language studies Bilingualism Language learning Adult education Second language acquisition Alzheimer's disease Language loss Language acquisition Language use Brain aging Want to write? Skip to content Age changes the way languages are learned, but adults remain capable of learning new languages throughout life.

Could all this mental activity also help keep an aging brain healthier? Concerns about memory and dementia can send aging adults looking for ways to exercise their brain and maintain cognitive function, whether it is solving crossword puzzles or playing a musical instrument. Research increasingly suggests that language learning and bilingualism can offer cognitive benefits – including for older adults. Learning unfamiliar sounds, vocabulary and grammatical patterns requires the brain to form and strengthen connections. Language learning engages several mental processes at once, requiring people to absorb and retrieve information, notice when something does not work out, and adjust.

What has been reported

This sustained mental effort makes language learning a particularly rich form of cognitive exercise. These findings suggest that language experience can be reflected in the brain’s structure, as well as its activity. The brain as it ages One reason researchers are interested in language and aging is the idea of cognitive reserve. Bilingualism has been proposed as one factor that can help the brain cope with the effects of aging, because managing two languages places ongoing demands on people’s attention and cognitive control – ultimately helping to strengthen cognitive reserve.

Research involving older adults suggests that learning a language can produce cognitive benefits, although the findings are mixed. There is no established formula for how much language learning is needed to provide these benefits. Studies have used everything from intensive classroom instruction to short daily sessions with language-learning apps, over periods ranging from weeks to months, to see whether language learning can improve cognitive function. Rather than a magic number of hours, what matters may be sustained engagement in a challenging activity like learning a new language.

What happens next

Aging inevitably changes the brain, but keeping our brains engaged in demanding new activities may help offset the effects. Keeping our brains engaged in demanding new activities may contribute to that resilience. I am a linguist who studies language acquisition, use and loss. My new book, “Beyond Words: How We Learn, Use, and Lose Language,” examines language and the mind across people’s lifespans. Research on bilingualism has found differences in both the brain’s gray matter, which contains neurons and their connections, and white matter, which consists largely of nerve fibers linking different parts of the brain.

Studies have shown greater gray matter density or stronger white matter integrity in bilingual people, compared with people who speak one language. But brain differences are only part of the picture.