september 2008

brain
b r i e f i n g s

As scientists unlock The Bilingual Brain

Reprinted by permission from Macmillan Publishers

more of the neurological
Parlez vous francais? Sprechen

Ltd: Nature. 2004 Oct 14;431:757. ©2004

secrets of the bilingual
Sie Deutsches? Hablas español? If
brain, they’re learning
so, and you also speak English
that speaking more
(or any other language), your
than one language may
brain may have developed
have cognitive benefits   Brain scans of bilingual individuals found greater gray-matter density
some distinct advantages over (yellow) in the inferior parietal cortex, an area in the brain’s language-
that extend from
dominant left hemisphere. The density was most pronounced in people who
childhood into old age.
your monolingual peers. New
were very proficient in a second language and in those who learned a sec-

research into the neurobiology ond language before the age of five.

of bilingualism has found that to the U.S. Census Bureau, school. Bilingual preschoolers

being fluent in two languages, about 18 percent of Americans have been found to be better

particularly from early child- speak a language other than able than their monolingual

hood, not only enhances a English at home. Of those, peers at focusing on a task

person’s ability to concentrate, three-quarters also report that while tuning out distractions.

but might also protect against they speak English “well” or A similar enhanced abil-

the onset of dementia and other “very well”—a strong indica- ity to concentrate—a sign of

age-related cognitive decline. tion that they are bilingual. a well-functioning working

These discoveries are leading to: Until fairly recently, parents memory—has been found in

∫ A better understanding of and educators feared that ex- bilingual adults, particularly

how the brain organizes speech posing children to a second lan- those who became fluent in two

and communication tasks. guage at too early an age might languages at an early age. It may

∫ Greater insight into how not only delay their language be that managing two languages

specific types of brain activ- skills but harm their intellectual helps the brain sharpen—and

ity may prevent or delay growth. New research, however, retain—its ability to focus while

dementia and other age- has found that bilingual chil- ignoring irrelevant information.

related cognitive problems. dren reach language milestones Other research suggests

∫ More targeted and effec- (such as first word and first that bilingualism may delay

tive therapies for helping fifty words) at the same age the onset of age-related de-

bilingual individuals re- as monolingual children. Nor mentia, including Alzheimer’s

cover their communication do they show any evidence of disease, by up to four years.

skills after a brain injury. being “language confused.” Although scientists don’t

Bilingualism is common in In fact, being bilingual may know why bilingualism cre-

the United States. According give children an advantage at ates this “cognitive reserve,”
 Eve Mard e r , P h D some theorize that speaking
President two languages may increase
Brandeis University
blood and oxygen flow to the
brain and keep nerve connec-
Tho mas J. Care w, P h D
President-Elect tions healthy—factors thought
University of California, Irvine to help ward off dementia.
More recently, scientists
David Van Esse n , P h D
have discovered that bilingual
Past President
adults have denser gray matter
Washington University
(brain tissue packed with infor-
School of Medicine
mation-processing nerve cells
Fo r mo re info r m at ion and fibers), especially in the
Please contact the public brain’s left hemisphere, where
information department
most language and communica-
at publicinfo@sfn.org or
tion skills are controlled. The
(202) 962-4000
effect is strongest in people
past is s u e s who learned a second lan-
www.sfn.org/briefings guage before the age of five
and in those who are most
proficient at their second
C o p yr i ght © 2 0 0 8 so ciety fo r n e u r os c i e n c e language. This finding sug-
The Bilingual Brain
gests that being bilingual
from an early age significantly
alters the brain’s structure.
Exactly how the brain or-
ganizes language in bilingual
individuals has been debated
for many years. Is each language
“stored” in its own area of the
brain or in overlapping regions?
Thanks to technological ad-
vances in brain imaging, scien-
tists have recently discovered
that the processing of different
languages occurs in much of
the same brain tissue. However,
when bilinguals are rapidly tog-
gling back and forth between
their two languages—that is, in
“bilingual mode”—they show
significantly more activity in
the right hemisphere than
monolingual speakers, par-
ticularly in a frontal area called
the dorso-lateral prefrontal
cortex (the source of the bilin-
gual advantages in attention
and control). This expanded
neural activity is so prominent
and predictable on brain scans
that it serves as a “neurological
signature” for bilingualism.
Finally, neuroscience research
is showing promise for evalu-
ating and treating bilingual
patients who lose the ability to
produce or understand speech
after a brain injury. Research
is showing that rehabilitation
efforts that use both languages,
not just one—even a patient’s
native language—hold the
greatest promise for recovery.
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