Many Canadians can attest that the bonuses of being bilingual are bountiful. Learning a second language has been shown to bring in more income and offers a more flexible mindset — and now, a study out of York University in Ontario links knowing two languages with a delay in the onset of dementia and Alzheimer’s Disease, the Huffington Post reports. The research, published last Friday in “Trends in Cognitive Sciences“, peeks into the minds of bilingual adults and looks at how bilingualism combats degenerative mental diseases like Alzheimer’s or dementia — and the results are promising. According to Dr. Ellen Bialystok, the lead researcher in the study, bilingual adults were found to have a greater cognitive reserve as they got older that allows the mind to run longer and more smoothly.
“It is rather like a reserve tank in a car. When you run out of fuel, you can keep going for longer because there is a bit more in the safety tank,” said Bialystok in an interview with the Guardian...
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