Beyond Alzheimer’s disease: can bilingualism be a more generalized protective factor in neurodegeneration?

Voits, T., Pliatsikas, C. ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7093-1773, Robson, H. and Rothman, J. (2020) Beyond Alzheimer’s disease: can bilingualism be a more generalized protective factor in neurodegeneration? Neuropsychologia, 147. 107593. ISSN 0028-3932 doi: 10.1016/j.neuropsychologia.2020.107593

Abstract/Summary

Bilingualism has been argued to have an impact on cognition and brain structure. Effects have been reported across the lifespan: from healthy children to ageing adults, including clinical (ageing) populations. It has been argued that active bilingualism may significantly contribute to the delaying of the expression of Alzheimer’s disease symptoms. If bilingualism plays an ameliorative role against the expression of neurodegeneration in dementia, it is possible that it could have similar effects for other neurodegenerative disorders, including Multiple Sclerosis, Parkinson’s and Huntington’s Diseases. To date, however, direct relevant evidence remains limited, not least because the necessary scientific motivations for investigating this with greater depth have not yet been fully articulated. Herein, we provide a roadmap that reviews the relevant literatures, highlighting potential links across neurodegenerative disorders and bilingualism more generally.

Item Type	Article
URI	https://reading-pure-test.eprints-hosting.org/id/eprint/92579
Identification Number/DOI	10.1016/j.neuropsychologia.2020.107593
Refereed	Yes
Divisions	Central Services Life Sciences > School of Psychology and Clinical Language Sciences > Department of Clinical Language Sciences
Download/View statistics	View download statistics for this item