http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/201...162304.htm

“People who speak more than two languages may lower their risk of developing memory problems, according to a study released today that will be presented at the American Academy of Neurology's 63rd Annual Meeting in Honolulu April 9 to April 16, 2011...

Researchers discovered that those people who spoke four or more languages were five times less likely to develop cognitive problems compared to those people who only spoke two languages.”

Five languages here I come!

who ONLY spoke two? ムカつく

Well I speak 4 languages, counting Japanese.
And + I'm learning German at school.

...now I just have to start speaking German and I won't be needing to worry about learning any languages.

At least then I will know that I can die in peace.


by the way what kind of problems are cognitive problems...any examples?
Bad memory because of ageing?

Edit:
Language is an operating system.
If you have 2 operating systems, then if one fails, you can use the other. If you speak 2 languages, then all concepts and words can be said in at least 2 different ways.

And thus, when knowing 2 languages you get 2 brain connections per concept, as opposed to 1 connection per concept.

And that's why even if one connection fails, the others might work and help to restore the failed connection, because both of those 2 languages are attached to one concept. As brain is a big network of connections, the more connections you have in a certain field, the harder it is to forget words in that field.

That's my theory for how this might work...but otherwise I don't really believe it yet.

...I wonder if I made any sense, but... oh well

I read a similar study back in 2007 that found that learning a second language after age 60 dramatically reduces the chances of getting Alzheimer's. The brain is a muscle that goes into atrophy like any other without use.

This type of study where they ask "what do people who live a long time have in common? Drinking wine? Eating blueberries?" is not the most solidly scientific.

I think it's likely that people who have the resources to learn 4 or more languages also have the resources to have a comfortable/healthy life that correlates with fewer memory problems, rather than that learning or knowing more languages actually has a causative role. It's very difficult to correlate specific aspects of a person's lifestyle to the health problems they don't develop.

Amset Wrote:I think it's likely that people who have the resources to learn 4 or more languages also have the resources to have a comfortable/healthy life

I think the scientists probably thought about that too. Most bilingual speakers are usually immigrants and they are easier to find for research and study, and they are mostly not that high in the society hierarchy ledge. So I don't think the test included only middle class polyglots.

they say that the brain works it's muscles a lot when you do math problems,learn languages,etc. So all the language learning we do will help our brains a lot when we get older.

jettyke Wrote:Edit:
Language is an operating system.

This analogy doesn't really work so well because of how the brain actually functions physiologically. Besides, if it really worked liked this then the subjects would only be safe from non-verbal tasks, and it doesn't sound like that is the case. The "language OS" would not play a huge part in, say, mental rotation tasks and one can hardly imagine in what way multiple languages could provide back-ups for that. If you wish to learn more about the brain, try looking up some cognitive neuroscience...

SheekuAltair Wrote:

Amset Wrote:I think it's likely that people who have the resources to learn 4 or more languages also have the resources to have a comfortable/healthy life

I think the scientists probably thought about that too. Most bilingual speakers are usually immigrants and they are easier to find for research and study, and they are mostly not that high in the society hierarchy ledge. So I don't think the test included only middle class polyglots.

Adjusting for social class wouldn't be enough. As much as I think IQ tests are mostly abused it would be reasonable to at least do an IQ check with the polyglot group and the bilingual group to see if it might be an overall intellectual 'advantage' that leads to both the learning of multiple languages and to healthy mental aging. Of course, it would still be hard to know if the difference was there even at very low age or if the learning itself somehow boosted the IQ levels of the polyglots. And THEN they'd have to look at if perhaps the polyglots tend to have a good social network (which is known to be one of the most important factors for staying healthy physically and mentally) and i'd say they probably do since languages are, after all, used for social interaction. Or maybe they read a lot of books etc etc.

In short, correlation does not (ry

Edit: Though I disagree with the sentiment that these studies would be not so "solidly scientific'. It's when people start jumping to conclusions and misinterpret the data that there are problems. Knowing what correlates with living a healthy good life gives us very valuable clues to what we might do to improve others' and our own situation. We shouldn't count on them to be sure-fire ways of getting what we want but they can still be of some help.

http://i-am-an-icecream.blogspot.com/201...-post.html

review of a fun lecture in Japanese from Tohoku University connected with this... lecture is linked. (it doesn't go into so much detail, but it's fun to watch)