The benefits of a bilingual brain are many and in recent decades, scientists have proven it. Thanks to Mia Nacamuli’s viral video on TEDTalks, visibility has been given to what science has spent years researching and publishing in studies and specialised journals: a bilingual brain is fitter, has more capacity to function, and ages better than a monolingual brain.
Learning a new language is a complex process: you cannot learn Spanish in one day (can you imagine??). If you are learning Spanish, you know that you have to memorise hundreds of vocabulary words, new sounds for you, new rules for writing in Spanish (tildes!), grammar structures unique to this language, and subtle ways to express yourself when you are among native people.
To learn all of these components, you need to be very consistent, over a long period of time, and in the process, you need to use different parts of your brain.
As a result, the benefits of a bilingual brain are summarised in:
By comparing a bilingual and a monolingual brain, neuroscientists have discovered that some specific regions of the bilingual brain are more active when performing linguistic tasks related to phonetics, spelling, and grammar (excellent reason to love Spanish grammar!). These regions are strengthened in terms of the amount of neural substances, therefore the volume of grey matter increases.
But we are not only talking about an increase in the volume of grey matter, scientists have seen the increase in connections between areas of the brain in the case of bilinguals. In one of these researches, it has been shown that students who have been learning Chinese for only six weeks show a better connected neural network between two areas of the brain (the superior temporal gyrus with the frontal and parietal cortex) compared to students who have not learned Chinese.
Therefore, the benefits of a bilingual brain, from a physical point of view are:
Another unique aspect of the experience of learning a second language is the fact that the speaker has to switch from one language to another. This demands effort and attention and triggers activity in an area of the brain (the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex) that plays a fundamental role in these functions:
Recent neuroimaging studies have shown evidence that another of the benefits of a bilingual brain is improved neuroplasticity. Neuroplasticity or neuronal plasticity consists of the ability of the brain to recover, restructure and adapt to new situations.
It is important to highlight the fact that the experience of learning a second language impacts many areas of the brain, it has a holistic effect, compared to the impact (also positive) of other activities such as juggling or doing puzzles, which are beneficial activities but only for specific areas of the brain.
If we pay attention now to adulthood and the demands of life, we can see that the benefits of a bilingual brain are very valuable when it comes to ageing with a good quality of life.
Bilingualism slows down the natural decline of the so-called ‘cognitive reserve’. Cognitive reserve is the brain’s ability to better tolerate the effects of pathologies associated with brain ageing. When we get older, the neural network also ages, and aspects such as our memory worsen. Researchers have shown that, among the benefits of a bilingual brain, is maintaining a good cognitive reserve for longer.
In addition to avoiding the deterioration of age, bilingualism also protects against diseases such as Alzheimer’s. Studies have shown a delay in the onset of Alzheimer’s disease of five years on average, between people with monolingual brains and bilingual brains. A piece of information that has caught my attention is that the age at which an adult begins to learn a second language is not relevant. The benefits are still amazing.
In the words of Dr. Ping Li, Professor of Psychology and Linguistics at Pennsylvania State University, ‘if the brain is an engine, bilingualism may help to improve its mileage, allowing it to go farther on the same amount of fuel.’
Your goal studying Spanish may be to achieve fluency, but as by-products you can increase the density of your brain mass, improve your attention, your memory and your ability to solve problems. You will also delay and improve the ageing of your brain as you get older.
Take a look at our catalogue of online Spanish classes and at our Membership Programme. Book your trial class today with one of our accredited native teachers. We will help, guide and motivate you in your adventure of learning Spanish.
I am sure that many students learning Spanish, after reading this article, see Spanish grammar through a different lens 😍😉.
REFERENCES
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. DOI: 10.1016/j.cortex.2014.05.001
Becky Wong, Bin Yin, Beth O’Brien, Neurolinguistics: Structure, Function, and Connectivity in the Bilingual Brain, BioMed Research International, vol. 2016, Article ID 7069274, 22 pages, 2016. https://doi.org/10.1155/2016/7069274
Bialystok E, Craik FI, Luk G. Bilingualism: Consequences for mind and brain. Trends in Cognitive Sciences. 2012;16(4):240–250
Craik FI, Bialystok E, Freedman M. Delaying the onset of Alzheimer disease: Bilingualism as a form of cognitive reserve. Neurology. 2010;75(19):1726–1729Schroeder SR, Marian V. A bilingual advantage for episodic memory in older adults. Journal of Cognitive Psychology. 2012;24(5):591–601
