28 JUN 2013 by ideonexus
Cognitive Benefits of Bilingualism
In stark contrast to early suspicions that bilingual children were at risk of retardation or at best, “mentally confused” (Bialystok, 2005), recent research links bilingualism to cognitive reserve and suggests it may offer protection against dementia in old age. Cognitive reserve describes a kind of resilience which appears to mediate the relationship between brain pathology and the clinical expression of that pathology; it is thought that this resilience derives from more efficient use o...It protects against the onset of dementia in old age and produces numerous sensory and executive cognitive benefits in life.