Being Bilingual Boosts Brain (fwd)

[phil cash cash]

Being Bilingual Boosts Brain
Oct. 13, 2004
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2004/10/13/health/webmd/main649050.shtml

People who are bilingual have an advantage over the rest of us, and not
just in terms of communication skills. The bilingual brain develops
more densely, giving it an advantage in various abilities and skills,
according to new research.

Researchers Andrea Mechelli of London's Wellcome Department of Imaging
Neuroscience and colleagues, including experts from the Fondazione
Santa Lucia in Rome, looked at brain densities of bilingual people.

First, they recruited 25 people who speak one language, 25 who learned a
second European language before age 5, and 33 who became bilingual
between ages 10 and 15.

All the participants spoke English as their primary language. Those who
had learned a second language later in life had practiced it regularly
for at least five years.

Bilingual Brains Do Better

The brain has two types of tissue visible to the naked eye, termed gray
and white matter. Gray matter makes up the bulk of nerve cells within
the brain. Studies have shown an association with gray matter density
(or volume and intellect), especially in areas of language, memory, and
attention.

Brain imaging showed that bilingual speakers had denser gray matter
compared with monolingual participants.

The difference was especially significant in the brain's left side — an
area known to control language and communication skills. The right
hemisphere of bilingual speakers also showed a similar trend.

The researchers say that although language is thought to be mediated by
functional changes in the brain, they show that being bilingual
structurally changes the brain. Their study shows the effect was
strongest in people who had learned a second language before age 5.

In a second test, the researchers studied 22 native Italian speakers who
had learned English as a second language between ages 2 and 34.

Those who had learned English at a young age had greater proficiency in
reading, writing, talking, and understanding English speech.

As in the first test, increases in gray matter density in the brain's
left region were linked to age at which a person became bilingual. The
earliest second language learners had the densest gray matter in that
part of the brain.

Of course, while it might seem easier to pick up a second language as a
child, it's still possible to do so as an adult.

"Our findings suggest that the structure of the human brain is altered
by the experience of acquiring a second language," write the
researchers in the October issue of the journal Nature.

SOURCE: Mechelli, A. Nature, October 2004; vol 431: p 757.