Research Says Multilingualism Helps Keep You Young

Can learning other languages help stay young for longer? In addition to its cultural and social value, speaking multiple languages can also protect brain health and physical health, slowing down biological processes of aging and strengthening resilience throughout life.

This is precisely the conclusion of an international study published in the prestigious journal Nature Aging. Among the main authors of this research is Lucia Amoruso, associate professor at Ikerbasque and researcher at the Basque Center on Cognition, Brain and Language (BCBL).

The expert group analyzed data from 86,149 participants from 27 different European countries, and proved that the bioconductual aging of multilinguals was slower compared to monolinguals.

According to the authors, speaking several languages shows that it can slow down the biological processes of aging and protect against age-related deterioration.

"Our work offers solid evidence that multilingualism can be a protective factor for healthy aging," said Lucia Amoruso.

AI Models

Researchers used artificial intelligence models trained by thousands of health and behavioral profiles to estimate the biological age of participants and calculate the gap in behavioral age (BBAG), that is, the difference between the predicted age and chronological age.

"We have collected risk factors for participants (hypertension, diabetes, sleep problems or sensory loss) and protective factors (education, cognition, functional capacity or physical activity), in order to then extract the BBAG value. If the value is negative, it indicates that someone has a slow and healthy aging; however, if it is positive, aging is faster," explained another author of the study, Dr. Agustín Ibañez, scientific director of the BrainLat Institute on Brain Health in Latin America.

The results reveal that people in countries where more than one language is spoken have half the probability of suffering signs of rapid aging. On the other hand, those who speak only one language have a double risk of aging earlier.

These consequences continue to be significant, even after adaptation according to linguistic, social, physical and socio-political factors. The protective effect of multilingualism is strong in indirect studies – reflecting the differences currently existing in aging – as well as in longitudinal analyses – which show that multilingualism predicts a lower risk of rapid aging over time.

"Learning and using languages activate essential brain networks related to attention, memory and executive control, as well as those related to social interaction; these mechanisms can strengthen resilience throughout life," added Dr. Hernan Hernandez, researcher at BrainLat and co-author of the article.

Furthermore, the authors emphasize that this protective effect can be cumulative: the more language spoken, the greater the protection against cognitive impairment associated with aging.

"According to the findings, multilingualism is an accessible and economical tool to promote healthy aging of the population, which can be combined with other factors such as creativity and education," concluded the BCBL expert.

This large-scale epidemiological study available in the journal Nature Aging is an important advance in general brain health strategies with cognitive, social and cultural factors. The authors advocate for incorporating language learning into public health and education policies, with the aim of improving cognitive resilience and reducing the social burden of aging.

The Basque Center on Cognition, Brain and Language is an international interdisciplinary research center.