Bilingualism Connected to Better Cognition, Joint Study Finds
- Oct 1, 2024
New findings by a University of Texas joint research team suggest that older Mexican American adults who frequently speak English and Spanish show better cognition than those who use one language. Led by Brian Downer, associate professor in the Department of Population Health & Health Disparities at The University of Texas Medical Branch, the study was published in July 2024 in the Journal of Alzheimer’s Disease.
Alongside Downer and Stephanie Grasso, assistant professor at UT Austin’s Moody College of Communication, researchers found that these multilingual older adults scored higher than single-language speakers on the Mini-Mental State Examination, a 30-point cognitive function screening that samples orientation, registration, attention, calculation, recall and language.
The findings could support methods of treatment for dementia in older adults by relying on evidence of the possible benefits of multilingualism for cognitive functioning.
“Although the positive effects of bilingualism have been previously documented, our findings suggest a robust effect in Mexican Americans, who we know are at a greater risk for experiencing cognitive decline, which makes this finding particularly exciting,” said Grasso.
The team, which includes researchers Fernando Llanos Lucas, Sadaf Milani and Neil Mehta, consulted data from the H-EPESE, a two-decade-long cohort study that examines the use of English and Spanish by older Mexican American adults.
