Skip to main content Accessibility help

We use cookies to distinguish you from other users and to provide you with a better experience on our websites. Close this message to accept cookies or find out how to manage your cookie settings.

Close cookie message
×
Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-2plfb Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-30T19:38:42.001Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

21 - Multilingualism and Cognitive Reserve

from Part V - L3/Ln and Cognition

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  13 July 2023

By
Noelia Calvo  and
Ellen Bialystok
Edited by
Jennifer Cabrelli ,
Adel Chaouch-Orozco ,
Jorge González Alonso ,
Sergio Miguel Pereira Soares ,
Eloi Puig-Mayenco  and
Jason Rothman
Jennifer Cabrelli
Affiliation:
University of Illinois, Chicago
Adel Chaouch-Orozco
Affiliation:
The Hong Kong Polytechnic University
Jorge González Alonso
Affiliation:
Universidad Nebrija, Spain and UiT, Arctic University of Norway
Sergio Miguel Pereira Soares
Affiliation:
Max Planck Institute for Psycholinguistics
Eloi Puig-Mayenco
Affiliation:
King's College London
Jason Rothman
Affiliation:
UiT, Arctic University of Norway and Universidad Nebrija, Spain
Get access

Summary

During the last decades, different concepts of reserve have been postulated to account for the brain’s capacity for resilience in the face of neurodegeneration. Lifelong bilingualism may be a reserve factor, delaying the onset of dementia by approximately four years. Nonetheless, the evidence remains inconsistent and the trajectory of the effects is not clear. For instance, it is unclear whether multilinguals have more cognitive benefits than bilinguals. This review aims to critically examine this question to delineate the major trends in the field. We first describe the overlap in the operationalization of reserve/resilience in order to provide a clear definition in support for such an approach in the field. We then review the bi-/multilingual literature to evaluate the current evidence for the question of whether bi-/multilingualism leads to increased reserve. Such considerations may lead to a re-evaluation of the construct in the bilingual literature and its implication in clinical studies.

Type
Chapter
Information
The Cambridge Handbook of Third Language Acquisition , pp. 555 - 576
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2023

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Abutalebi, J., Della Rosa, P. A., Tettamanti, M., Green, D. W., & Cappa, S. F. (2009). Bilingual Aphasia and Language Control: A Follow-Up FMRI and Intrinsic Connectivity Study. Brain and Language, 109(2–3), 141–156.Google Scholar
Abutalebi, J., Della Rosa, P. A., Gonzaga, A. K. C., et al. (2013). The Role of the Left Putamen in Multilingual Language Production. Brain and Language, 125(3), 307–315.Google Scholar
Abutalebi, J., Canini, M., Della Rosa, P. A., Green, D. W., & Weekes, B. S. (2015). The Neuroprotective Effects of Bilingualism Upon the Inferior Parietal Lobule: A Structural Neuroimaging Study in Aging Chinese Bilinguals. Journal of Neurolinguistics, 33, 3–13.Google Scholar
Alladi, S., Bak, T. H., Duggirala, V., et al. (2013). Bilingualism Delays Age at Onset of Dementia, Independent of Education and Immigration Status. Neurology, 81(22), 1938–1944.Google Scholar
Alladi, S., Bak, T. H., Mekala, S., et al. (2016). Impact of Bilingualism on Cognitive Outcome After Stroke. Stroke, 47(1), 258–261.Google Scholar
Alladi, S., Bak, T. H., Shailaja, M., et al. (2017). Bilingualism Delays the Onset of Behavioral But Not Aphasic Forms of Frontotemporal Dementia. Neuropsychologia, 99, 207-212.Google Scholar
Anderson, J. A. E., Grundy, J. G., De Frutos, J., et al. (2018). Effects of Bilingualism on White Matter Integrity in Older Adults. Neuroimage, 167, 143-150.Google Scholar
Anderson, J. A. E., Hawrylewicz, K., & Grundy, J. G. (2020). Does Bilingualism Protect against Dementia? A Meta-analysis. Psychonomic Bulletin and Review, 27(5), 952–965.Google Scholar
Ansaldo, A. I., Ghazi-Saidi, L., & Adrover-Roig, D. (2015). Interference Control in Elderly Bilinguals: Appearances Can Be Misleading. Journal of Clinical and Experimental Neuropsychology, 37(5), 455–470.Google Scholar
Arce Rentería, M., Casalletto, K., Tom, S., et al. (2019). The Contributions of Active Spanish–English Bilingualism to Cognitive Reserve among Older Hispanic Adults Living in California. Archives of Clinical Neuropsychology, 34(7), 1235–1235.Google Scholar
Aveledo, F., Higueras, Y., Marinis, T., et al. (2020). Multiple Sclerosis and Bilingualism: Some Initial Findings. Linguistic Approaches to Bilingualism, 11(4), 551–577.Google Scholar
Bak, T. H., Nissan, J. J., Allerhand, M. M., & Deary, I. J. (2014). Does Bilingualism Influence Cognitive Aging? Annals of Neurology, 75(6), 959–963.Google Scholar
Berkes, M., Bialystok, E., Craik, F. I., Troyer, A., & Freedman, M. (2020). Conversion of Mild Cognitive Impairment to Alzheimer Disease in Monolingual and Bilingual Patients. Alzheimer Disease & Associated Disorders, 34(3), 225–230.Google Scholar
Bettio, L. E., Rajendran, L., & Gil-Mohapel, J. (2017). The Effects of Aging in the Hippocampus and Cognitive Decline. Neuroscience & Biobehavioral Reviews, 79, 66-86.Google Scholar
Bialystok, E. (2021). Bilingualism: Pathway to Cognitive Reserve. Trends in Cognitive Sciences, 25(5), 355–364.Google Scholar
Bialystok, E. (2017). The Bilingual Adaptation: How Minds Accommodate Experience. Psychological Bulletin, 143(3), 233–262.Google Scholar
Executive Function Tests. Neuropsychology, 28(2), 290–304.Google Scholar
Bialystok, E., Craik, F. I., & Freedman, M. (2007). Bilingualism as a Protection against the Onset of Symptoms of Dementia. Neuropsychologia, 45(2), 459–464.Google Scholar
Bialystok, E., Craik, F. I., Binns, M. A., Ossher, L., & Freedman, M. (2014). Effects of Bilingualism on the Age of Onset and Progression of MCI and AD: Evidence fromGoogle Scholar
Bialystok, E., Abutalebi, J., Bak, T. H., Burke, D. M., & Kroll, J. F. (2016). Aging in Two Languages: Implications for Public Health. Ageing Research Reviews, 27, 56–60.Google Scholar
Cabeza, R., Albert, M., Belleville, S., et al. (2018). Maintenance, Reserve and Compensation: The Cognitive Neuroscience of Healthy Ageing. Nature Reviews Neuroscience, 19(11), 701–710.Google Scholar
Cabeza, R., Albert, M., Belleville, S., et al. (2019). Reply to “Mechanisms Underlying Resilience in Ageing.” Nature Reviews Neuroscience, 20(4). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41583-019-0139-z.Google Scholar
Calvo, N., García, A. M., Manoiloff, L., & Ibáñez, A. (2016). Bilingualism and Cognitive Reserve: A Critical Overview and a Plea for Methodological Innovations. Frontiers in Aging Neuroscience, 7, article 249.Google Scholar
Calvo, N., Abrevaya, S., Martínez Cuitiño, M., et al. (2019). Rethinking the Neural Basis of Prosody and Non-literal Language: Spared Pragmatics and Cognitive Compensation in a Bilingual with Extensive Right-Hemisphere Damage. Frontiers in Psychology, 10, article 570.Google Scholar
Chertkow, H., Whitehead, V., Phillips, N., et al. (2010). Multilingualism (but Not Always Bilingualism) Delays the Onset of Alzheimer Disease: Evidence from a Bilingual Community. Alzheimer Disease & Associated Disorders, 24(2), 118–125.Google Scholar
Clare, L., Whitaker, C. J., Craik, F. I., et al. (2016). Bilingualism, Executive Control, and Age at Diagnosis among People with Early‐Stage Alzheimer’s Disease in Wales. Journal of Neuropsychology, 10(2), 163–185.Google Scholar
Cole, M. W., Repovš, G., & Anticevic, A. (2014). The Frontoparietal Control System: a Central Role in Mental Health. The Neuroscientist, 20(6), 652-664.Google Scholar
Costumero, V., Marin-Marin, L., Calabria, M., et al. (2020). A Cross-sectional and Longitudinal Study on the Protective Effect of Bilingualism against Dementia Using Brain Atrophy and Cognitive Measures. Alzheimer’s Research & Therapy, 12(1), 1–10.Google Scholar
Craik, F. I., Bialystok, E., & Freedman, M. (2010). Delaying the Onset of Alzheimer Disease: Bilingualism as a Form of Cognitive Reserve. Neurology, 75(19), 1726-1729.Google Scholar
Craik, F. I., & Salthouse, T. A. (2011). The Handbook of Aging and Cognition: London: Psychology Press.Google Scholar
Crane, P. K., Gruhl, J. C., Erosheva, E. A., et al. (2010). Use of Spoken and Written Japanese Did Not Protect Japanese-American Men from Cognitive Decline in Late Life. Journals of Gerontology Series B: Psychological Sciences and Social Sciences, 65(6), 654–666.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
DeLuca, V., Rothman, J., Bialystok, E., & Pliatsikas, C. (2019). Redefining Bilingualism as a Spectrum of Experiences that Differentially Affects Brain Structure and Function. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 116(15), 7565–7574.Google Scholar
DeLuca, V., Rothman, J., Bialystok, E., & Pliatsikas, C. (2020). Duration and Extent of Bilingual Experience Modulate Neurocognitive Outcomes. Neuroimage, 204, article 116222.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Duncan, H. D., Nikelski, J., Pilon, R., Steffener, J., Chertkow, H., & Phillips, N. A. (2018). Structural Brain Differences Between Monolingual and Multilingual Patients with Mild Cognitive Impairment and Alzheimer Disease: Evidence for Cognitive Reserve. Neuropsychologia, 109, 270–282.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Ellajosyula, R., & Narayanan, J. (2020). Cognitive Reserve and Vulnerability in Frontotemporal Dementia: Role of Bilingualism and Stressors (1757). Neurology, 94(15 suppl). https://n.neurology.org/content/94/15_Supplement/1757.Google Scholar
Estanga, A., Ecay-Torres, M., Ibanez, A., et al. (2017). Beneficial Effect of Bilingualism on Alzheimer’s Disease CSF Biomarkers and Cognition. Neurobiology of Aging, 50, 144–151.Google Scholar
Giorgio, A., Santelli, L., Tomassini, V., et al. (2010). Age-Related Changes in Grey and White Matter Structure throughout Adulthood. Neuroimage, 51(3), 943–951.Google Scholar
Gold, B. T. (2015). Lifelong Bilingualism and Neural Reserve against Alzheimer’s Disease: A Review of Findings and Potential Mechanisms. Behavioural Brain Research, 281, 9–15.Google Scholar
Gold, B. T., Kim, C., Johnson, N. F., Kryscio, R. J., & Smith, C. D. (2013). Lifelong Bilingualism Maintains Neural Efficiency for Cognitive Control in Aging. Journal of Neuroscience, 33(2), 387–396.Google Scholar
Gollan, T. H., Salmon, D. P., Montoya, R. I., & Galasko, D. R. (2011). Degree of Bilingualism Predicts Age of Diagnosis of Alzheimer’s Disease in Low-Education But Not in Highly Educated Hispanics. Neuropsychologia, 49(14), 3826–3830.Google Scholar
Grady, C. (2012). The Cognitive Neuroscience of Ageing. Nature Reviews Neuroscience, 13(7), 491–505.Google Scholar
Grady, C. L., Luk, G., Craik, F. I., & Bialystok, E. (2015). Brain Network Activity in Monolingual and Bilingual Older Adults. Neuropsychologia, 66, 170–181.Google Scholar
Grundy, J. G., & Anderson, J. A. (2017). Commentary: The Relationship of Bilingualism Compared to Monolingualism to the Risk of Cognitive Decline or Dementia: A Systematic Review and Meta-analysis. Frontiers in Aging Neuroscience, 9, article 344.Google Scholar
Hack, E. E., Dubin, J. A., Fernandes, M. A., Costa, S. M., & Tyas, S. L. (2019). Multilingualism and Dementia Risk: Longitudinal Analysis of the Nun Study. Journal of Alzheimer’s Disease, 71(1), 201–212.Google Scholar
Hebb, D. (1949). Organization of Behavior, New York: Wiley. Journal of Clinical Psychology, 6(3), 307.Google Scholar
Ihle, A., Oris, M., Fagot, D., & Kliegel, M. (2016). The Relation of the Number of Languages Spoken to Performance in Different Cognitive Abilities in Old Age. Journal of Clinical and Experimental Neuropsychology, 38(10), 1103–1114.Google Scholar
Ihle-Hansen, H., & Ihle-Hansen, H. (2018). Aging Brain and Neurological Changes. In Rehabilitation Medicine for Elderly Patients (pp. 15–20). Cham: Springer.Google Scholar
Katzman, R., Terry, R., DeTeresa, R., et al. (1988). Clinical, Pathological, and Neurochemical Changes in Dementia: A Subgroup with Preserved Mental Status and Numerous Neocortical Plaques. Annals of Neurology: Official Journal of the American Neurological Association and the Child Neurology Society, 23(2), 138–144.Google Scholar
Kavé, G., Eyal, N., Shorek, A., & Cohen-Mansfield, J. (2008). Multilingualism and Cognitive State in the Oldest Old. Psychology and Aging, 23(1), 70–78.Google Scholar
Klein, R. M., Christie, J., & Parkvall, M. (2016). Does Multilingualism Affect the Incidence of Alzheimer’s Disease? A Worldwide Analysis by Country. SSM-Population Health, 2, 463–467.Google Scholar
Kowoll, M. E., Degen, C., Gladis, S., & Schröder, J. (2015). Neuropsychological Profiles and Verbal Abilities in Lifelong Bilinguals with Mild Cognitive Impairment and Alzheimer’s Disease. Journal of Alzheimer’s Disease, 45(4), 1257–1268.Google Scholar
Lahiri, D., Ardila, A., Dubey, S., et al. (2020). Effect of Bilingualism on Aphasia Recovery. Aphasiology, 1–22.Google Scholar
Lawton, D. M., Gasquoine, P. G., & Weimer, A. A. (2015). Age of Dementia Diagnosis in Community Dwelling Bilingual and Monolingual Hispanic Americans. Cortex, 66, 141–145.Google Scholar
Li, P., Legault, J., & Litcofsky, K. A. (2014). Neuroplasticity as a Function of Second Language Learning: Anatomical Changes in the Human Brain. Cortex, 58, 301–324.Google Scholar
Luk, G., Bialystok, E., Craik, F. I., & Grady, C. L. (2011). Lifelong Bilingualism Maintains White Matter Integrity in Older Adults. Journal of Neuroscience, 31(46), 16808–16813.Google Scholar
Madden, D. J., Spaniol, J., Whiting, W. L., et al. (2007). Adult Age Differences in the Functional Neuroanatomy of Visual Attention: A Combined FMRI and DTI Study. Neurobiology of Aging, 28(3), 459–476.Google Scholar
Martínez-Horta, S., Moreu, A., Perez-Perez, J., et al. (2019). The Impact of Bilingualism on Brain Structure and Function in Huntington’s Disease. Parkinsonism & Related Disorders, 60, 92–97.Google Scholar
Mukadam, N., Sommerlad, A., & Livingston, G. (2017). The Relationship of Bilingualism Compared to Monolingualism to the Risk of Cognitive Decline or Dementia: A Systematic Review and Meta-analysis. Journal of Alzheimer’s Disease, 58(1), 45–54.Google Scholar
Ossher, L., Bialystok, E., Craik, F. I., Murphy, K. J., & Troyer, A. K. (2013). The Effect of Bilingualism on Amnestic Mild Cognitive Impairment. Journals of Gerontology Series B: Psychological Sciences and Social Sciences, 68(1), 8–12.Google Scholar
Paplikar, A., Mekala, S., Bak, T. H., et al. (2019). Bilingualism and the Severity of Poststroke Aphasia. Aphasiology, 33(1), 58–72.Google Scholar
Parkvall, M. (2009). Are Most People Really Bilingual? Unpublished manuscript.Google Scholar
Perani, D., Farsad, M., Ballarini, T., et al. (2017). The Impact of Bilingualism on Brain Reserve and Metabolic Connectivity in Alzheimer’s Dementia. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 114(7), 1690–1695.Google Scholar
Perneczky, R., Kempermann, G., Korczyn, A. D., et al. (2019). Translational Research on Reserve against Neurodegenerative Disease: Consensus Report of the International Conference on Cognitive Reserve in the Dementias and the Alzheimer’s Association Reserve, Resilience and Protective Factors Professional Interest Area Working Groups. BMC Medicine, 17(1), 1–15.Google Scholar
Perquin, M., Vaillant, M., Schuller, A.-M., et al. (2013). Lifelong Exposure to Multilingualism: New Evidence to Support Cognitive Reserve Hypothesis. PloS One, 8(4), article e62030.Google Scholar
Perquin, M., Diederich, N., Pastore, J., et al. (2015). Prevalence of Dementia and Cognitive Complaints in the Context of High Cognitive Reserve: A Population-Based Study. PloS One, 10(9), article e0138818.Google Scholar
Ramon y Cajal, S. R. (1895). Einige Hypothensen über den anatomischen Mechanismus der Ideenbildung, der Association und der Aufmerksamkeit.Google Scholar
Rast, P., & Hofer, S. M. (2014). Longitudinal Design Considerations to Optimize Power to Detect Variances and Covariances among Rates of Change: Simulation Results Based on Actual Longitudinal Studies. Psychological Methods, 19(1), 133–154.Google Scholar
Saidi, A. (2019). Bilingual Speakers Postpone Symptoms of Cognitive Deficit in Parkinson’s Disease. Innovation in Aging, 3(S1), S661.Google Scholar
Sanders, A. E., Hall, C. B., Katz, M. J., & Lipton, R. B. (2012). Non-native Language Use and Risk of Incident Dementia in the Elderly. Journal of Alzheimer’s Disease, 29(1), 99-108.Google Scholar
Satz, P. (1993). Brain Reserve Capacity on Symptom Onset After Brain Injury: A Formulation and Review of Evidence for Threshold Theory. Neuropsychology, 7(3), 273–295.Google Scholar
Schroeder, S. R., & Marian, V. (2017). Cognitive Consequences of Trilingualism. International Journal of Bilingualism, 21(6), 754–773.Google Scholar
Schweizer, T. A., Ware, J., Fischer, C. E., Craik, F. I., & Bialystok, E. (2012). Bilingualism as a Contributor to Cognitive Reserve: Evidence from Brain Atrophy in Alzheimer’s Disease. Cortex, 48(8), 991–996.Google Scholar
Stein, M., Winkler, C., Kaiser, A., & Dierks, T. (2014). Structural Brain Changes Related to Bilingualism: Does Immersion Make a Difference? Frontiers in Psychology, 5, article 1116.Google Scholar
Stern, Y. (2002). What Is Cognitive Reserve? Theory and Research Application of the Reserve Concept. Journal of the International Neuropsychology Society, 8(3), 448–460.Google Scholar
Stern, Y. (2012). Cognitive Reserve in Ageing and Alzheimer’s Disease. The Lancet Neurology, 11(11), 1006–1012.Google Scholar
Stern, Y., Moeller, J. R., Anderson, K. E., et al. (2000). Different Brain Networks Mediate Task Performance in Normal Aging and AD: Defining Compensation. Neurology, 55(9), 1291–1297.Google Scholar
Stern, Y., Chételat, G., Habeck, C., et al. (2019). Mechanisms Underlying Resilience in Ageing. Nature Reviews Neuroscience, 20(4), 246.Google Scholar
Stern, Y., Arenaza‐Urquijo, E. M., Bartrés‐Faz, D., et al. (2020). Whitepaper: Defining and Investigating Cognitive Reserve, Brain Reserve, and Brain Maintenance. Alzheimer’s & Dementia, 16(9), 1305–1311.Google Scholar
van Den Noort, M., Vermeire, K., Staudte, H., et al. (2019). The Relationship between Linguistic Ability, Multilingualism, and Dementia. Journal of Alzheimer’s Disease, 72(4), 1041–1044.Google Scholar
Woumans, E., Santens, P., Sieben, A., et al. (2015). Bilingualism Delays Clinical Manifestation of Alzheimer’s Disease. Bilingualism: Language and Cognition, 18(3), 568–574.Google Scholar
Zahodne, L. B., Schofield, P. W., Farrell, M. T., Stern, Y., & Manly, J. J. (2014). Bilingualism Does Not Alter Cognitive Decline or Dementia Risk among Spanish-Speaking Immigrants. Neuropsychology, 28(2), 238–246.Google Scholar
Zunini, R. A. L., Morrison, C., Kousaie, S., & Taler, V. (2019). Task Switching and Bilingualism in Young and Older Adults: A Behavioral and Electrophysiological Investigation. Neuropsychologia, 133, article 107186.Google Scholar

Save book to Kindle

To save this book to your Kindle, first ensure [email protected] is added to your Approved Personal Document E-mail List under your Personal Document Settings on the Manage Your Content and Devices page of your Amazon account. Then enter the ‘name’ part of your Kindle email address below. Find out more about saving to your Kindle.

Note you can select to save to either the @free.kindle.com or @kindle.com variations. ‘@free.kindle.com’ emails are free but can only be saved to your device when it is connected to wi-fi. ‘@kindle.com’ emails can be delivered even when you are not connected to wi-fi, but note that service fees apply.

Find out more about the Kindle Personal Document Service.

Available formats
×

Save book to Dropbox

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Dropbox.

Available formats
×

Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

Available formats
×