Speaking four or more languages could lower risk of dementia — study

New research has found that having a strong ability for learning languages may help to reduce an individual’s risk of developing dementia.

Carried out by researchers at the University of Waterloo in Canada, the study looked at 325 Roman Catholic nuns in the United States who were taking part in the larger, internationally recognized Nun Study, which is a longitudinal study of religious sisters aged 75 and over.

The nuns were asked to report on how many languages they spoke, and 106 samples of the nuns’ written work were also provided for analysis.

The findings, published in the Journal of Alzheimer’s Disease, showed that just 6% of the nuns who spoke four or more languages developed dementia, compared to 31% of those who only spoke one language.

However, speaking two or three languages did not appear to have a significant effect on reducing dementia risk in this study, a finding which goes against those found in some previous studies.

When the researchers analyzed the nuns’ written work, they found that written linguistic ability appeared to have an even greater effect on reducing dementia risk than the ability to speak different languages.

“The Nun Study is unique. It is a natural experiment, with very different lives in childhood and adolescence before entering the convent, contrasted with very similar adult lives in the convent,” explained lead author Suzanne Tyas. “This gives us the ability to look at early-life factors on health later in life without worrying about all the other factors, such as socioeconomic status and genetics, which usually vary from person to person during adulthood and can weaken other studies.”


“Language is a complex ability of the human brain, and switching between different languages takes cognitive flexibility,” said Tyas. “So it makes sense that the extra mental exercise multilinguals would get from speaking four or more languages might help their brains be in better shape than monolinguals.”

“This study shows that while multilingualism may be important, we should also be looking further into other examples of linguistic ability,” Tyas stated.

“In addition, we need to know more about multilingualism and what aspects are important — such as the age when a language is first learned, how often each language is spoken and how similar or different these languages are,” she added. “This knowledge can guide strategies to promote multilingualism and other linguistic training to reduce the risk of developing dementia.” RGA/JB

source: technology.inquirer.net

Second language linked to better brain function after stroke

People who speak two languages are twice as likely as those who only speak one to regain normal cognitive function after a stroke, according to a new study.

In recent years it has become clear that life experiences modify the way disease expresses itself in the brain, said lead author Dr. Suvarna Alladi, a neurology professor at Nizam’s Institute of Medical Sciences in Hyderabad, India.

“One study in Toronto demonstrated that people who could speak two languages had later onset dementia,” Alladi told Reuters Health.

Using multiple languages challenges the brain, as it can be harder to find a particular word switching between languages, and this challenge promotes neuroplasticity or “cognitive reserve,” which prepares the brain to deal with new challenges, like disease, she said.

Researchers reviewed the medical records of 608 patients in the stroke registry at Alladi’s institution between 2006 and 2013. In Hyderabad, Telugu, Urdu, Hindi and English are all common languages and children learn three languages in school, Alladi said.

More than half of the stroke patients spoke at least two languages.

After accounting for other lifestyle factors like smoking, high blood pressure, diabetes, age and education, the researchers found that about 40 percent of those who were bilingual had normal cognitive function after a stroke, compared to 20 percent of those who spoke only one language.

Bilingual people also performed better on tests of attention after a stroke, but there was no difference in the likelihood of experiencing aphasia, or loss of ability to understand or express speech, according to the results in Stroke.

“They develop stroke at the same age but outcomes appear to be better for bilinguals,” Alladi said.

Using a second or third language regularly, or speaking it fluently even if you do not use it regularly, seems to provide the benefit to the brain, she said.

“The most important factor would be long-term language use,” she said. Learning a second language in school and then never using it may not confer the same benefit, she said.

“The take-home message would be that cognitively stimulating activities are something you can do in midlife to protect yourself. One is speaking two languages, but it could also be playing a musical instrument,” or other challenging activities, she said.

“This is heartening because you know that you can do something to protect yourself,” Alladi said.

Three languages may be better than two languages, though that is still unclear, “but I suspect the additional positive effects of further languages falls off quickly as more languages are learned,” said Fergus Craik of the Rotman Research Institute at Baycrest in Toronto, who was not part of the new study.

He and his colleagues previously found that bilingualism delays the onset of Alzheimer’s disease by four to five years.

“People should learn a second language to communicate in a second living situation or to absorb a different culture – or out of interest and enjoyment,” Craik told Reuters Health by email. “The neurological benefits are a bonus, not a primary goal.”

In many parts of the world, like India, Africa and Europe, speaking multiple languages is already common practice, Alladi said.

“In places where two languages are existing, it’s a good idea to encourage that,” she said. — Reuters

Multilinguals do better at finding statistical patterns, study shows

Since most Filipinos are multilingual, does this mean we’re all in some way better at math?

In a recent study published in Psychological Science, researchers and psychologists from Hebrew University performed a series of experiments which suggest that those who had an easier time learning a new language may be better at detecting statistical patterns.

Ram Frost, lead researcher and psychological scientist, and his team from Hebrew University tested American students in overseas program on how well they picked up the structure of words and sounds in Hebrew. The students were tested two times, once in the first semester and again in the second semester.

Visual patterns

The students were also tested on their ability to detect visual patterns when asked to watch a stream of complex shapes. The students didn’t know that the 24 shapes they were watching have already been organized into eight triplets.  The order of shapes within the groups have been randomized but the shapes within each triplet always appeared in the same sequence.

Their results show a strong correlation between statistical learning and language learning. The students that who were able to detect the patterns in visual pattern test were the ones who had an easier time learning Hebrew and were able to understand the language better than their counterparts at the end of 2 semesters.

This study, which was supported by the Israel Science Foundation (159/10) and by the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (RO1 HD 067364 and PO1HD 01994) provides us with a new insight on how people learn a new language and why some people are better at picking up different languages.

Language and visual perception

In the story in Science Daily on the study, Frost says "These new results suggest that learning a second language is determined to a large extent by an individual ability that is not at all linguistic…It's surprising that a short 15-minute test involving the perception of visual shapes could predict to such a large extent which of the students who came to study Hebrew would finish the year with a better grasp of the language."

This study presents the possibility that statistical learning may have a broad impact on other cognitive skills. And if a certain level of statistical or mathematical acuity is needed to learn a second language, then this implies that Filipinos, who are mostly bilingual, may have a higher level of statistical learning that may have not been exploited or explored.

In their paper, the researchers concluded that "This finding points to the possibility that a unified and universal principle of statistical learning can quantitatively explain a wide range of cognitive processes across domains, whether they are linguistic or nonlinguistic.” — TJD, GMA News

source: gmanetwork.com

Google Translate now available offline for Android phones

Lost in a foreign land and need translation help quick, but there's no Internet? Google language packs to the rescue!

Google has rolled out offline language packs for the Google Translate on Android app (version 2.3 and up), with support for 50 languages.

"While the offline models are less comprehensive than their online equivalents, they are perfect for translating in a pinch when you are traveling abroad with poor reception or without mobile data access," associate product manager Minqi Jiang said in a blog post.

 

 

Before a user can avail of the language packs, he or she will first have to download and run the Google Translate app for Android.

 

 

The Translate app itself, however, usually needs an Internet connection to translate phrases from one language to another.

With the offline language packs, Jiang said a user can select "Offline Languages" in the app menu to see the offline language packages available for download.

"To enable offline translation between any two languages, you just need to select them in the offline languages menu. Once the packages are downloaded, you're good to go," Jiang said.

"So go out and explore another language or another culture without worrying about Internet access. There’s a whole world offline out there," Jiang added. — TJD, GMA News

 

source: gmanetwork.com