"Being bilingual may delay Alzheimer's and boost brain power..."

[Lise Menn]

go look at the original publication - the link is posted, in the  
Guardian article, and here it is, also:
http://www.neurology.org/content/75/19/1726.abstract?sid=63045016-6a3b-4c35-86d2-ea93215d4fde
Lise

On Feb 22, 2011, at 3:08 PM, Östen Dahl wrote:

> So what does "bilingual" mean in this context? It seems to me that  
> it is being used in a rather vague way, possibly conflating quite  
> different situations. Is a bilingual person someone who has grown up  
> speaking more than one language, or is it anyone who has some  
> knowledge of a second language? And it is using the second language,  
> or knowing it, that is crucial? -- Having to speak a non-native  
> language daily may be like solving cross-words, which is supposed to  
> be good for keeping your cognitive abilities intact. But if you know  
> the language from an early age, it might not take any special effort  
> to speak it, and thus there may be no positive effect. So  
> generalizing about "bilingual people" would be rather misleading.  
> But maybe there are other things going on.
> - östen
>
>
> -----Ursprungligt meddelande-----
> Från: funknet-bounces at mailman.rice.edu [mailto:funknet-bounces at mailman.rice.edu 
> ] För alex gross
> Skickat: den 20 februari 2011 23:28
> Till: funknet at mailman.rice.edu
> Ämne: [FUNKNET] "Being bilingual may delay Alzheimer's and boost  
> brain power..."
>
> Here's some pleasant news from The Guardian, at least for those of  
> us fortunate enough to be bi- or multi-lingual...assuming it doesn't  
> get contradicted by another set of texts next month...
>
> http://www.guardian.co.uk/science/2011/feb/18/bilingual-alzheimers-brain-power-multitasking
>
> All the best to everyone!
>
> alex
>

Lise Menn                      Home Office: 303-444-4274
1625 Mariposa Ave	Fax: 303-413-0017
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http://spot.colorado.edu/~menn/index.html	

Professor Emerita of Linguistics
Fellow, Institute of Cognitive Science
University of  Colorado

Secretary, AAAS Section Z [Linguistics]
Fellow, Linguistic Society of America

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