Normal and abnormal aging in bilinguals

Ardila, Alfredo; Ramos, Eliane

doi:10.1590/S1980-57642009DN20400002

Abstract

Bilinguals use two different language systems to mediate not only social communication, but also cognitive processes. Potential differences between bilinguals and monolinguals in task-solving strategies and patterns of cognitive decline during normal and abnormal aging have been suggested. Main contribution: A research review of the area suggests that normal aging is associated with increased interference between the two languages and tendency to retreat to a single language. General cognitive functioning has been found to be higher in demented bilingual patients if communication is carried out in L1 rather than in L2. Recent research has reported that bilingualism can have a protective effect during aging, attenuating the normal cognitive decline associated with aging, and delaying the onset of dementia. Conclusions: Regardless of the significant heterogeneity of bilingualism and the diversity of patterns in language use during life-span, current research suggests that bilingualism is associated with preserved cognitive test performance during aging, and potentially can have some protective effect in dementia.

Key words:
bilingualism; normal aging; cognition; dementia.

Resumo

Pessoas bilingües usam dois sistemas linguísticos distintos na mediação da comunicação social e de processos cognitivos. Em consequência, podem usar estratégias particulares na solução de tarefas específicas, assim como podem passar por processos distintos de declínio cognitivo no envelhecimento normal ou anormal. Contribuição: Uma revisão da literatura da área sugere que o envelhecimento normal está relacionado com interferência progressiva entre as duas linguas e tendência a retroceder ao uso exclusivo de uma lingua. Em alguns estudos, pacientes bilingües com demência demonstram melhor função cognitiva na comunicação em L1 do que em L2. Em investigações recentes, o bilingüismo tem mostrado um efeito protetor no envelhecimento, atenuando o declínio cognitivo normal e retardando o princípio da demência. Conclusões: Apesar da grande heterogeneidade presente em populações bilingües e da diversidade de padrões de uso das duas linguas em diferentes estágios de vida, estudos recentes sugerem que o bilingüismo está relacionado a melhores resultados em testes de cognição em idade avançada e, potencialmente, a um efeito protetor na demência.

Palavras-chave:
bilinguismo; envelhecimento; cognição; demência.

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Full text available only in PDF format.

References

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Luria AR. Human brain and psychological processes. New York: Harper & Row; 1966
²
Abutalebi J, Annoni JM, Zimine I, et al. Language control and lexical competition in bilinguals: an event-related FMRI study. Cereb Cortex 2008;18:1496-1505.
³
Halsband U. Bilingual and multilingual language processing. J Physiol Paris 2006;99:355-369
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Klein D, Zatorre RJ, Chen JK, et al. Bilingual brain organization: a functional magnetic resonance adaptation study. Neuroimage 2006;31:366-375.
⁵
Kovelman I, Baker SA, Petitto LA. Bilingual and monolingual brains compared: a functional magnetic resonance imaging investigation of syntactic processing and a possible "neural signature" of bilingualism. J Cogn Neurosci 2008;20:153-169
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Tatsuno Y, Sakai KL. Language-related activations in the left prefrontal regions are differentially modulated by age, proficiency, and task demands. J Neurosci 2005;25:1637-44
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Fabbro F. The bilingual brain: bilingual aphasia. Brain Lang 2001;79:201-210.
⁸
Lorenzen B, Murray LL. Bilingual aphasia: a theoretical and clinical review. Am J Speech Lang Pathol 2008;17:299-317
⁹
Meinzer M, Obleser J, Flaisch T, Eulitz C, Rockstroh B. Recovery from aphasia as a function of language therapy in an early bilingual patient demonstrated by fMRI. Neuropsychologia 2007;45:1247-1256
¹⁰
Vilariño I, Prieto JM, Robles A, Lema M, Noya M. A study of bilingual Galician-Castillian aphasic patients. Rev Neurol 1997;25:1165-1167.
¹¹
Ardila A. Bilingualism across life-span under normal and abnormal conditions. In: Ardila A, Ramos E, editors, Speech and language disorders in bilinguals. New York: Nova Science Publishers; 2007:151-160
¹²
Hyltenstam K, Obler LK. Bilingualism across the Lifespan: Aspects of Acquisition, Maturity, and Loss. New York: Cambridge University Press; 1989.
¹³
Craik FI, Bialystok E. Cognition through the lifespan: mechanisms of change. Trends Cogn Sci 2006;10:131-138.
¹⁴
Durga R. Bilingualism and interlingual interference. J Crosscult Psychol 1978;9:401-415
¹⁵
Berthold M, Mangubhai F, Batorowicz K. Bilingualism & Multiculturalism: Study Book. University of Southern Queensland: Toowoomba, QLD;1997.
¹⁶
Skiba R. Code Switching as a Countenance of Language Interference. The Internet TESL Journal, Vol. III, 10, October, 1997 http://iteslj.org
» http://iteslj.org
¹⁷
Hernandez AE, Dapretto M, Mazziotta J, Bookheimer S. Language Switching and language representation in Spanish-English bilinguals: An fMRI Study. Neuroimage 2001;14:510-520
¹⁸
Schrauf RW, Rubin DC. Internal languages of retrieval: the bilingual encoding of memories for the personal past. Mem Cognit 2000;28:616-623
¹⁹
Rosselli M, Ardila A, Araujo K, et al. Verbal fluency and repetition skills in healthy older Spanish-English bilinguals. Appl Neuropsychol 2000;7:17-24.
²⁰
Gollan TH, Fennema-Notestine C, Montoya RI, Jernigan TL. The bilingual effect on Boston Naming Test performance. J Int Neuropsychol Soc 2007;13:197-208
²¹
Rosselli M, Ardila A, Santisi MN, et al. Stroop effect in Spanish-English bilinguals. J Int Neuropsychol Soc 2002;8:819-827.
²²
Mechelli A, Crinion JT, Noppeney U, et al. Neurolinguistics: structural plasticity in the bilingual brain. Nature 2004;431:757
²³
Mendez MF, Perryman KM, Pontón MO, Cummings JL. Bilingualism and dementia. J Neuropsychiatry Clin Neurosci 1999;11:411-412.
²⁴
Meguro K, Senaha MLH , Caramelli P, et al. Language deterioration in four Japanese-Portuguese bilingual patients with Alzheimer's disease: a trans-cultural study of Japanese elderly immigrants in Brazil. Psychogeriatrics 2003;3:63-68
²⁵
Ekman SL, Wahlin TB, Norberg A, Winblad B. Relationship between bilingual demented immigrants and bilingual/monolingual caregivers. Int J Aging Hum Dev 1993;37:37-54.
²⁶
Ekman SL, WahlinTB, Viitanen M, Norberg A, Winblad B. Preconditions for communication in the care of bilingual demented persons. Int Psychogeriatr 1994;6:105-120.
²⁷
Mendez M.F, Saghafi S, Clark DG. Semantic dementia in multilingual patients. J Neuropsychiatry Clin Neurosci 2004; 16:381.
²⁸
Filley CM, Ramsberger G, Menn L, Wu J, Reid BY, Reid AL. Primary progressive aphasia in a bilingual woman. Neurocase 2006;12:296-299.
²⁹
De Santi S, Obler L K, Sabo-Abrahamson H, Goldberger J. Discourse abilities and deficits in multilingual dementia. In: Y. Joanette, H. H. Brownell, eds, Discourse Ability and Brain Damage: Theoretical and Empirical Perspectives. New York: Springer; 1990:224-235.
³⁰
Friedland D, Miller N. Language mixing in bilingual speakers with Alzheimer's dementia: a conversation analysis approach. Aphasiology 1999;13:427-444.
³¹
de Picciotto J, Friedland D. Verbal fluency in elderly bilingual speakers: normative data and preliminary application to Alzheimer's disease. Folia Phoniatr Logop 2001;53:145-152.
³²
Bialystok E, Craik FI, Klein R, Viswanathan M. Bilingualism, aging, and cognitive control: evidence from the Simon task. Psychol Aging 2004;19:290-303.
³³
Bialystok E, Craik FI, Ruocco AC. Dual-modality monitoring in a classification task: the effects of bilingualism and ageing. Q J Exp Psychol (Colchester) 2006;59:1968-83.
³⁴
Bialystok E, Craik FI, Ryan J. Executive control in a modified antisaccade task: Effects of aging and bilingualism. J Exp Psychol Learn Mem Cogn 2006;32:1341-1354.
³⁵
Bialystok E, Craik FI, Freedman M. Bilingualism as a protection against the onset of symptoms of dementia. Neuropsychologia 2007;45:459-464.
³⁶
Craik FI, Bialystok E. Planning and task management in older adults: cooking breakfast. Mem Cognit 2006;34:1236-1249.
³⁷
Craik F, Bialystok E. Intelligence and executive control: evidence from aging and bilingualism. Cortex 2005;41:222-224.
³⁸
Fernandes MA, Craik F, Bialystok E, Kreuger S. Effects of bilingualism, aging, and semantic relatedness on memory under divided attention. Can J Exp Psychol 2007;61:128-141.
³⁹
Kavé G, Eyal N, Shorek A, Cohen-Mansfield J. Multilingualism and cognitive state in the oldest old. Psychol Aging 2008;23: 70-78.
⁴⁰
Mohamed Zied K, Phillipe A, Pinon K, et al. Bilingualism and adult differences in inhibitory mechanisms: evidence from a bilingual stroop task. Brain Cogn 2004;54:254-256.

Publication Dates

Publication in this collection
Oct-Dec 2008

History

Received
02 Oct 2008
Accepted
20 Oct 2008

This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License

[1] ¹
Luria AR. Human brain and psychological processes. New York: Harper & Row; 1966

[2] ²
Abutalebi J, Annoni JM, Zimine I, et al. Language control and lexical competition in bilinguals: an event-related FMRI study. Cereb Cortex 2008;18:1496-1505.

[3] ³
Halsband U. Bilingual and multilingual language processing. J Physiol Paris 2006;99:355-369

[4] ⁴
Klein D, Zatorre RJ, Chen JK, et al. Bilingual brain organization: a functional magnetic resonance adaptation study. Neuroimage 2006;31:366-375.

[5] ⁵
Kovelman I, Baker SA, Petitto LA. Bilingual and monolingual brains compared: a functional magnetic resonance imaging investigation of syntactic processing and a possible "neural signature" of bilingualism. J Cogn Neurosci 2008;20:153-169

[6] ⁶
Tatsuno Y, Sakai KL. Language-related activations in the left prefrontal regions are differentially modulated by age, proficiency, and task demands. J Neurosci 2005;25:1637-44

[7] ⁷
Fabbro F. The bilingual brain: bilingual aphasia. Brain Lang 2001;79:201-210.

[8] ⁸
Lorenzen B, Murray LL. Bilingual aphasia: a theoretical and clinical review. Am J Speech Lang Pathol 2008;17:299-317

[9] ⁹
Meinzer M, Obleser J, Flaisch T, Eulitz C, Rockstroh B. Recovery from aphasia as a function of language therapy in an early bilingual patient demonstrated by fMRI. Neuropsychologia 2007;45:1247-1256

[10] ¹⁰
Vilariño I, Prieto JM, Robles A, Lema M, Noya M. A study of bilingual Galician-Castillian aphasic patients. Rev Neurol 1997;25:1165-1167.

[11] ¹¹
Ardila A. Bilingualism across life-span under normal and abnormal conditions. In: Ardila A, Ramos E, editors, Speech and language disorders in bilinguals. New York: Nova Science Publishers; 2007:151-160

[12] ¹²
Hyltenstam K, Obler LK. Bilingualism across the Lifespan: Aspects of Acquisition, Maturity, and Loss. New York: Cambridge University Press; 1989.

[13] ¹³
Craik FI, Bialystok E. Cognition through the lifespan: mechanisms of change. Trends Cogn Sci 2006;10:131-138.

[14] ¹⁴
Durga R. Bilingualism and interlingual interference. J Crosscult Psychol 1978;9:401-415

[15] ¹⁵
Berthold M, Mangubhai F, Batorowicz K. Bilingualism & Multiculturalism: Study Book. University of Southern Queensland: Toowoomba, QLD;1997.

[16] ¹⁶
Skiba R. Code Switching as a Countenance of Language Interference. The Internet TESL Journal, Vol. III, 10, October, 1997 http://iteslj.org
» http://iteslj.org

[17] ¹⁷
Hernandez AE, Dapretto M, Mazziotta J, Bookheimer S. Language Switching and language representation in Spanish-English bilinguals: An fMRI Study. Neuroimage 2001;14:510-520

[18] ¹⁸
Schrauf RW, Rubin DC. Internal languages of retrieval: the bilingual encoding of memories for the personal past. Mem Cognit 2000;28:616-623

[19] ¹⁹
Rosselli M, Ardila A, Araujo K, et al. Verbal fluency and repetition skills in healthy older Spanish-English bilinguals. Appl Neuropsychol 2000;7:17-24.

[20] ²⁰
Gollan TH, Fennema-Notestine C, Montoya RI, Jernigan TL. The bilingual effect on Boston Naming Test performance. J Int Neuropsychol Soc 2007;13:197-208

[21] ²¹
Rosselli M, Ardila A, Santisi MN, et al. Stroop effect in Spanish-English bilinguals. J Int Neuropsychol Soc 2002;8:819-827.

[22] ²²
Mechelli A, Crinion JT, Noppeney U, et al. Neurolinguistics: structural plasticity in the bilingual brain. Nature 2004;431:757

[23] ²³
Mendez MF, Perryman KM, Pontón MO, Cummings JL. Bilingualism and dementia. J Neuropsychiatry Clin Neurosci 1999;11:411-412.

[24] ²⁴
Meguro K, Senaha MLH , Caramelli P, et al. Language deterioration in four Japanese-Portuguese bilingual patients with Alzheimer's disease: a trans-cultural study of Japanese elderly immigrants in Brazil. Psychogeriatrics 2003;3:63-68

[25] ²⁵
Ekman SL, Wahlin TB, Norberg A, Winblad B. Relationship between bilingual demented immigrants and bilingual/monolingual caregivers. Int J Aging Hum Dev 1993;37:37-54.

[26] ²⁶
Ekman SL, WahlinTB, Viitanen M, Norberg A, Winblad B. Preconditions for communication in the care of bilingual demented persons. Int Psychogeriatr 1994;6:105-120.

[27] ²⁷
Mendez M.F, Saghafi S, Clark DG. Semantic dementia in multilingual patients. J Neuropsychiatry Clin Neurosci 2004; 16:381.

[28] ²⁸
Filley CM, Ramsberger G, Menn L, Wu J, Reid BY, Reid AL. Primary progressive aphasia in a bilingual woman. Neurocase 2006;12:296-299.

[29] ²⁹
De Santi S, Obler L K, Sabo-Abrahamson H, Goldberger J. Discourse abilities and deficits in multilingual dementia. In: Y. Joanette, H. H. Brownell, eds, Discourse Ability and Brain Damage: Theoretical and Empirical Perspectives. New York: Springer; 1990:224-235.

[30] ³⁰
Friedland D, Miller N. Language mixing in bilingual speakers with Alzheimer's dementia: a conversation analysis approach. Aphasiology 1999;13:427-444.

[31] ³¹
de Picciotto J, Friedland D. Verbal fluency in elderly bilingual speakers: normative data and preliminary application to Alzheimer's disease. Folia Phoniatr Logop 2001;53:145-152.

[32] ³²
Bialystok E, Craik FI, Klein R, Viswanathan M. Bilingualism, aging, and cognitive control: evidence from the Simon task. Psychol Aging 2004;19:290-303.

[33] ³³
Bialystok E, Craik FI, Ruocco AC. Dual-modality monitoring in a classification task: the effects of bilingualism and ageing. Q J Exp Psychol (Colchester) 2006;59:1968-83.

[34] ³⁴
Bialystok E, Craik FI, Ryan J. Executive control in a modified antisaccade task: Effects of aging and bilingualism. J Exp Psychol Learn Mem Cogn 2006;32:1341-1354.

[35] ³⁵
Bialystok E, Craik FI, Freedman M. Bilingualism as a protection against the onset of symptoms of dementia. Neuropsychologia 2007;45:459-464.

[36] ³⁶
Craik FI, Bialystok E. Planning and task management in older adults: cooking breakfast. Mem Cognit 2006;34:1236-1249.

[37] ³⁷
Craik F, Bialystok E. Intelligence and executive control: evidence from aging and bilingualism. Cortex 2005;41:222-224.

[38] ³⁸
Fernandes MA, Craik F, Bialystok E, Kreuger S. Effects of bilingualism, aging, and semantic relatedness on memory under divided attention. Can J Exp Psychol 2007;61:128-141.

[39] ³⁹
Kavé G, Eyal N, Shorek A, Cohen-Mansfield J. Multilingualism and cognitive state in the oldest old. Psychol Aging 2008;23: 70-78.

[40] ⁴⁰
Mohamed Zied K, Phillipe A, Pinon K, et al. Bilingualism and adult differences in inhibitory mechanisms: evidence from a bilingual stroop task. Brain Cogn 2004;54:254-256.

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