TY - CONF

T1 - Learning a second language after age 30 keeps your brain young

AU - O'Riordan, Caitlin-Ellen

AU - Mills, Debra

AU - Neofytou, Elena

AU - Roch, Natalie

PY - 2018/9/21

Y1 - 2018/9/21

N2 - Research suggests that bilingualism can slow the rate ofcognitive decline in older adults and even delay the onset ofsymptoms of dementia1. Older adult bilinguals outperformmonolinguals on a range of executive functioning tasks includinginhibitory control, task switching, and working memory2. This isknown as the “bilingual advantage”. According to Ellen Bialystok,the suppression of one language when using the otherstrengthens frontal lobe functioning thus resulting in a cognitiveadvantage for bilinguals2.However, the bilingual advantage has not been observed inWelsh-English adults over 65 using behavioural tasks3. A possibleexplanation is that for life-long balanced bilinguals switchingbetween languages is effortless and does not “exercise” thefrontal lobe functioning needed to demonstrate a bilingualadvantage.The present study tested the hypothesis that learning Welsh asan adult would facilitate a bilingual advantage later in life, i.e.after age 65, IF the adult Welsh learners:• Became highly proficient in Welsh• Used Welsh frequently in their daily lives – thus requiringEnglish, the dominant first language, to be suppressed.

AB - Research suggests that bilingualism can slow the rate ofcognitive decline in older adults and even delay the onset ofsymptoms of dementia1. Older adult bilinguals outperformmonolinguals on a range of executive functioning tasks includinginhibitory control, task switching, and working memory2. This isknown as the “bilingual advantage”. According to Ellen Bialystok,the suppression of one language when using the otherstrengthens frontal lobe functioning thus resulting in a cognitiveadvantage for bilinguals2.However, the bilingual advantage has not been observed inWelsh-English adults over 65 using behavioural tasks3. A possibleexplanation is that for life-long balanced bilinguals switchingbetween languages is effortless and does not “exercise” thefrontal lobe functioning needed to demonstrate a bilingualadvantage.The present study tested the hypothesis that learning Welsh asan adult would facilitate a bilingual advantage later in life, i.e.after age 65, IF the adult Welsh learners:• Became highly proficient in Welsh• Used Welsh frequently in their daily lives – thus requiringEnglish, the dominant first language, to be suppressed.

KW - bilingualism

KW - Event-related potentials (ERP)

M3 - Poster

T2 - CoNSALL: Cognitive Neuroscience of Second and Artificial Language Learning

Y2 - 21 September 2018 through 23 September 2018

ER -