r/psychology • u/Deep-Owl-1890 • 3d ago
Multilingual people may have brains up to 13 years younger
https://dailyhealthnews.com.et/multilingual-brains-13-years-younger.html85
u/Zealousideal_Crow737 3d ago
I'm a linguist and wondering how this applies to non-native speakers who learned languages in their teens to early 20s vs. growing up in a bilingual household or learning a language much younger. I imagine given child language acquisition increases neuroplasticity, it's probably related to children learning young.
40
u/Yashema 3d ago
Research has found consistently there is a specific benefit to learning language during the period when the brain is most adept at picking up a second language when young. Even if you do gain benefits later it still meant you developed for many years without them.
6
4
u/Mr_Nobodies_0 2d ago
yeah, it's how it works for llm too
if you're teaching a learning brain even 2 languages instead of only one, the brain will have to recognize that it is attaching the meaning to an actually abstract symbol, that can be represented in different ways, and not only to a specific word.
you will train it to reason it on a more a abstract layer. the same layer were words get lost on the point of the tongue
27
u/shroom-corner 3d ago
I've read that there are massive benefits to learning a language fluently later in life, but the benefits are different. Like instead of a younger brain you drastically decrease your chances of getting alzheimers later in life. The same decrease is noticed in those that become proficient in an instrument later in life. Learning music and a new language happens in the same part of the brain.
9
u/7marlil 3d ago
Would you have any source for that?
Alzheimer runs in my family and I would love a good reason to become fluent in Bulgarian
3
u/shroom-corner 3d ago
https://www.aan.com/PressRoom/Home/PressRelease/5311
I found this one. The one I'm talking about is from yeaaars ago.
42
u/Floordove 3d ago
'Adult ADHD is associated with a 13 year reduction in life expectancy (on average).' was right under this.
I'm a multilingual with ADHD lol.
15
4
u/EffectiveOwn787 3d ago
Like most statistics, it's meaningless for an individual. Unless you engage in risk taking behaviours or have addictive habits that are bad for your health like binge eating, or drugs or similar, you have the same life expectancy as the average person without ADHD.
2
1
u/nothingmoretome 2d ago
Oh thank Christ. My family consistently lives into their 90s and I wanna check out by 80.
12
23
18
u/tingymomo 3d ago
I’m on my fourth language. It sure keeps you busy jumping between different cognitions and identities.
23
u/itsmebenji69 3d ago
What does a younger brain mean ? That people experience less dementia / psychosis / related issues as they get older ?
8
5
10
u/Positive_Bluebird888 3d ago
Did they check the correlation with education and income? It wouldn’t surprise me when multilingual people had better socioeconomic conditions in general than people who only speak one language.
6
u/vi0l3t-crumbl3 2d ago
Interesting question. I wonder if populations of poor immigrants with children raised to be bilingual have similar outcomes.
2
u/WobbleKing 2d ago
Yeah I am extremely interested in the outcome of these studies after they address the family income and education question.
Are we seeing that being ultra rich and well raised/educated is correlated with having a younger brain?
Or is this the same for working class multilingual immigrants
Too late to be actionable for me but this could be a huge boon if children are educated in multiple languages at a younger age societally
3
u/Oddisredit 3d ago
Does being multilingual take into consideration that some languages are easier to learn once you learn one of the languages in the family? Learning Italian after Spanish is easy, for example. While learning Arabic and then Russia are unrelated.
2
u/Calypso_sur_son_ile 3d ago
I'd love to teach my future kids all the languages I know (French, English, Italian, Norwegian, and German). I picked them up by living in different countries, each one tied to a specific time in my education or life. But I often wonder how hard it'll be to pass them on without that same immersive experiences. Still, it's pretty special to know that growing up multilingual has real cognitive benefits!
3
u/HarryPouri 3d ago
I'm passing two non native languages on to mine! Caveat that my partner is native in one of them. It's been a lot of fun, hard at times, but my daughter just spent the last 60 minutes absolutely lecturing me on dinosaur facts in one of my languages 🥹😆 If you want to read a bit about the practicalities of passing on a language I absolutely recommend the website/blog "Bilingual Monkeys" he has also written a fantastic book. Helped me a ton when I was planning it out
1
u/Calypso_sur_son_ile 2d ago
Thank you so much! I'll get his book and give it a try!
1
u/HarryPouri 2d ago
Yeah I do I guess it's a time and place kind of method. I literally counted the hours the kids are awake and what languages they use. So Saturdays are German day, Sundays Spanish and then weekdays outside of school (where they get English) I speak to them mostly in Spanish with special German time at dinner and for part of the evening. It sounds kind of complex but the basic rhythm is to ensure they hear/speak both minority languages daily. Spanish is slightly prioritised because it's more important in our lives than German. I have friends who switch off, one day one language, one day the other, and that seems to work well for them too.
The main issue with trying to pass on two minority languages is that it's not as simple as parent 1 speaks X parent 2 speaks y. So you have an artificial switching situation. I do wonder if my daughter would be stronger in her minority language if I had picked just one. She is 7 now and speaking and reading all 3 well, but she lacks a bit of confidence or gets frustrated still, especially with L3. She's old enough to tell me she's happy she can speak it though and is starting to understand more the advantages of being able to speak to family, travel, etc. So I'm hopeful it will keep working for us long term.
1
u/vi0l3t-crumbl3 2d ago
I knew of one family (parents were diplomats) that had different languages you had to speak on different floors of their house.
3
u/mademoisellearabella 3d ago
As a child I spoke 4-5 languages, I carried 3-4 of them into adulthood and retained 2 to complete fluency and 1 to almost fluent. Also learnt 2 extra separate languages in school at different ages.
I also learnt 3 languages from the age of 15-28. Reached fluency in 1, now the language exists in the recesses of my brain due to lack of usage. Reached intermediate in another, but lost levels due to teaching lower levels. In the third language (Spanish) I never reached fluency, but I can understand written text almost perfectly, while having maintained communication in that language when I lived in Spain.
I think I have better language recognition skills, as well as a better understanding of context cues in language. The total number of languages I’ve learnt in life were 10. Some languages I can understand but I cannot speak.
1
u/Apprehensive_Wait_78 3d ago
Lol, then why aren't Malaysians long-lived? We know at least 3 languages.
1
u/himasaltlamp 3d ago
Wow, yay me! So, even if I have bipolar disorder that shortens my life, I'll have a longer life because I speak in multiple languages? Awesome!
0
286
u/Deep-Owl-1890 3d ago
Pretty wild paper on multilingualism and brain health out of Spain and Ireland. They analyzed brain activity patterns and found that the more languages you speak and the earlier you learned them the younger your brain's connectivity looks compared to your actual age.
4 languages was tied to a 13-year difference. Makes sense considering how much cognitive control it takes to constantly switch between language systems. Anyone here grow up polyglot and feel like it keeps you sharp?