View Content #5612
| Contentid | 5612 |
|---|---|
| Content Type | 1 |
| Title | New Study: Bilingualism Delays Onset of Dementia |
| Body | From http://ca.news.yahoo.com/s/11012007/3/canada-bilingualism-delays-onset-dementia-study.html Bilingualism delays onset of dementia: study January 11, 2007 OTTAWA (CBC) - Lifelong bilingualism can help delay the onset of Alzheimer's disease and other dementia in the elderly by an average of four years, according to a small study by Canadian researchers. Patients who spoke more than one language reported memory loss or other dementia symptoms on average four years later than people who spoke only one language. Principal investigator Ellen Bialystok, a psychologist and associate scientist at the Rotman Research Institute at Baycrest, said the results were unusually clear. "Rarely does a study give such clean results, so this was surprising to us," she told CBC News Online. Bilingualism forces the control functions of the brain's frontal lobe into action, said Bialystok, who conducted the research with psychologist Fergus Craik and neurologist Morris Freedman. "If you have two languages in your brain, you need a way to keep them straight, otherwise you might say the wrong thing," she said. "It's one of the things that often goes wrong with people suffering from dementia. They can no longer control their speech." The frontal lobes, which control planning and other high-level functions, are also used in language. Research has found exercising that part of the brain can help build up a "cognitive reserve," which can stave off dementia. Read the entire article at http://ca.news.yahoo.com/s/11012007/3/canada-bilingualism-delays-onset-dementia-study.html . |
| Source | Yahoo! Canada |
| Inputdate | 2007-01-22 12:02:02 |
| Lastmodifieddate | 2007-01-22 12:02:02 |
| Expdate | Not set |
| Publishdate | 2007-01-22 00:00:00 |
| Displaydate | Not set |
| Active | 1 |
| Emailed | 1 |
| Isarchived | 1 |
