Linking early-life bilingualism and cognitive advantage in older adulthood

Ballarini, Tommaso; Kuhn, Elizabeth; Roeske, Sandra; Altenstein, Slawek; Bartels, Claudia; Buchholz, Friederike; Buerger, Katharina; Dechent, Peter; Dobisch, Laura; Ewers, Michael; Fliessbach, Klaus; Freiesleben, Silka Dawn; Frommann, Ingo; Gabelin, Tatjana; Glanz, Wenzel; Goerss, Doreen; Haynes, John Dylan; Incesoy, Enise I.; Janowitz, Daniel; Kilimann, Ingo; Kleineidam, Luca; Kobeleva, Xenia; Laske, Christoph; Lohse, Andrea; Maier, Franziska; Munk, Matthias H.; Perneczky, Robert; Peter, Oliver; Priller, Josef; Rauchman, Boris-Stephan; Roy, Nina; Scheffler, Klaus; Schneider, Anja; Schott, Bjorn H.; Spottke, Annika; Sprut, Eike Jakob; Teipel, Stefan; Wiltfang, Jens; Wolfsgruber, Steffen; Duezel, Emrah; Jessen, Frank und Wagner, Michael (2023): Linking early-life bilingualism and cognitive advantage in older adulthood. In: Neurobiology of Aging, Bd. 124: S. 18-28

Abstract

Previous studies have identified bilingualism as a protective factor against dementia. Here we aimed to test whether being bilingual at different life stages impacts cognition and brain structure in older adult-hood. We included 746 participants from the DZNE-Longitudinal Cognitive Impairment and Dementia Study (DELCODE). Assessment of bilingualism at 3 life stages (early: 13-30, middle: 30-65 and late: over 65 years old) was determined with the Lifetime of Experiences Questionnaire. Individuals reporting bilin-gualism (i.e., daily use of L2) in the early life stage outperformed monolinguals on learning & memory, working-memory, executive functions and language. Bilingualism in middle life stage showed a signifi-cant advantage on learning & memory, while no effect of bilingualism in old life stage was identified. Brain gray matter volume was not associated with L2 use and did not differ between groups. However, stronger correlations between brain gray matter volume in selected brain regions and cognitive perfor-mance were found in bilingual participants in the early and middle life stages. Our results indicate that bilingualism in early life might provide a long-lasting protective effect on cognition and shape the brain to sustain cognitive performance in older adulthood. (c) 2022 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

• Dokumententyp: Zeitschriftenartikel
• Fakultät: Medizin > Munich Cluster for Systems Neurology (SyNergy)
• Themengebiete: 600 Technik, Medizin, angewandte Wissenschaften > 610 Medizin und Gesundheit
• Sprache: Englisch
• DFG: Gefördert durch die Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - 390857198