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October 6 2019
Interesting program reporting back on the nun study in which they took 678 nuns over 75 without dementia and followed up their cognitive abilities until they died. The advantage is they had a group with similar adult lives including diet, drug and alcohol use etc.
We will all be happy to learn that while only 6% of the multilingual nuns got dementia over 30% of the others did. This study showed no delay of onset - just a reduced likelihood of getting it.
What is also interesting is their definition of "multilingualism" – they had to speak at least four languages to a level that they could teach the language.
The scientist commented that some studies have found a positive effect with only two languages – but only if both languages were used daily. (ie just "learning" a language is not enough – it is a step but it needs more)
They also noticed an effect with the use of rich language. Having a large vocab and using nuance may also be way for monolingual speakers to gain some protection.
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