Health Report - For the Brain, the Benefits of Being Bilingual

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VOA Learning English, welcome to Health in Special English! is more evidence suggesting that being bilingual is good your brain. A new study found that older adults have spoken two languages since childhood showed better mental than those who speak just one language. Earlier studies that the ability to speak 2 languages, or bilingualism, to favor the development of these heightened skills. The appeared in the Journal of Neuroscience. Brian Gold was lead author of the study. He is a neuroscientist the University of Kentucky College of Medicine. Dr. Gold his team asked people to sort colors and shapes a series of simple exercises. They used brain imaging compare how well three groups of people switched among exercises. The groups were bilingual seniors, monolingual seniors and adults. The imaging showed different patterns of activity in frontal part of the brain, in an area used processing those tasks. Dr. Gold says the results suggest bilingual subjects use their brain more efficiently. Dr. Gold that knowing a second language made no difference for young adults. They did better at the exercises than groups of older people. But he says the older adults appear to have built up a surplus from lifetime of increased mental activity. He says his research an earlier study on bilingualism among patients with Alzheimer's . That study showed that bilingual speakers suffered more brain , but were able to think at the same level patients with less damage. Dr. Gold says he believes new study confirms that bilingualism can protect brain performance. VOA Learning English, I'm Carolyn Presutti.

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