Hostname: page-component-5db58dd55d-bthnr Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2026-06-16T00:25:21.185Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Bilingualism delays clinical manifestation of Alzheimer's disease*

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  29 December 2014

EVY WOUMANS ,
PATRICK SANTENS ,
ANNE SIEBEN ,
JAN VERSIJPT ,
MICHAËL STEVENS  and
WOUTER DUYCK
EVY WOUMANS*
Affiliation:
Department of Experimental Psychology, Ghent University
PATRICK SANTENS
Affiliation:
Department of Neurology, Ghent University Hospital, Ghent University
ANNE SIEBEN
Affiliation:
Department of Neurology, Ghent University Hospital, Ghent University
JAN VERSIJPT
Affiliation:
Department of Neurology, Brussels University Hospital, Vrije Universiteit Brussel
MICHAËL STEVENS
Affiliation:
Department of Experimental Psychology, Ghent University
WOUTER DUYCK
Affiliation:
Department of Experimental Psychology, Ghent University
*
Address for correspondence: Evy Woumans Department of Experimental PsychologyGhent University Henri Dunantlaan 2, B9000, Gent, Belgiumevy.woumans@ugent.be
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

The current study investigated the effects of bilingualism on the clinical manifestation of Alzheimer's disease (AD) in a European sample of patients. We assessed all incoming AD patients in two university hospitals within a specified timeframe. Sixty-nine monolinguals and 65 bilinguals diagnosed with probable AD were compared for time of clinical AD manifestation and diagnosis. The influence of other potentially interacting variables was also examined. Results indicated a significant delay for bilinguals of 4.6 years in manifestation and 4.8 years in diagnosis. Our study therefore strengthens the claim that bilingualism contributes to cognitive reserve and postpones the symptoms of dementia.

Keywords

Alzheimer’s diseasedementiabilingualismcognitive reservecognitive aging

Information

Type
Research Notes
Information
Bilingualism: Language and Cognition , Volume 18 , Issue 3 , July 2015 , pp. 568 - 574
Check for updates
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2014 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Article purchase

Temporarily unavailable

Footnotes

*

The authors gratefully acknowledge support from Ghent University's Special Research Fund (BOF). They also thank Ghent University Hospital and Brussels University Hospital for their cooperation. This study received approval from the Ghent University Hospital Ethics Board in a Certificate of Research Approval dated 1st February 2013. Written informed consent was from all patients and their caregivers.

References

Abutalebi, J., Canini, M., Della Rosa, P. A., Green, D. W., & Weekes, B. S. (in press). The neuroprotective effects of bilingualism upon the inferior parietal lobule: A Structural Neuroimaging Study in Aging Chinese Bilinguals. Journal of Neurolinguistics. doi: 10.1016/j.jneuroling.2014.09.008 CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Abutalebi, J., Canini, M., Della Rosa, P. A., Sheung, L. P., Green, D. W., & Weekes, B. S. (2014). Bilingualism protects anterior temporal lobe integrity in aging. Neurobiology of aging, 35 (9), 2126–2133.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Alladi, S., Bak, T. H., Duggirala, V., Surampudi, B., Shailaja, M., Shukla, A. K., Chaudhuri, D. M., & Kaul, S. (2013). Bilingualism delays age at onset of dementia, independent of education and immigration status. Neurology, 8, 1938–1944.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bak, T. H., Nissan, J. J., Allerhand, M. M., & Deary, I. J. (2014). Does bilingualism influence cognitive aging? Annals of Neurology. DOI: 10.1002/ana.24158 CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bialystok, E. (2009). Bilingualism: The good, the bad, and the indifferent. Bilingualism: Language and Cognition, 12 (1), 3–11.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bialystok, E., Craik, F. I. M., Binns, M. A., Ossher, L., & Freedman, M. (2014). Effects of Bilingualism on the Age of Onset and Progression of MCI and AD: Evidence From Executive Function Tests. Neuropsychology, 28 (2), 290–304.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bialystok, E., Craik, F. I. M., & Freedman, M. (2007). Bilingualism as a protection against the onset of symptoms of dementia. Neuropsychologia, 45, 459–464.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Bialystok, E., Craik, F. I. M., Klein, R., & Viswanathan, M. (2004). Bilingualism, aging, and cognitive control: Evidence from the Simon Task. Psychology and Aging, 19, 290–303.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Brookmeyer, R., Johnson, E., Ziegler-Graham, K., & Arrighi, H. M. (2007). Forecasting the global burden of Alzheimer's disease. Alzheimer's & Dementia, 3, 186–191.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Chertkow, H., Whitehead, V., Phillips, N., Wolfson, C., Atherton, J., & Bergman, H. (2010). Multilingualism (But Not Always Bilingualism) Delays the Onset of Alzheimer Disease: Evidence From a Bilingual Community. Alzheimer Disease and Associated Disorders, 24 (2), 118–125.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Craik, F. I. M., Bialystok, E., & Freedman, M. (2010). Delaying the onset of Alzheimer disease. Bilingualism as a form of cognitive reserve. Neurology, 75, 1726–1729.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Di Meco, A., Joshi, Y. B., & Praticò, D. (2014). Sleep deprivation impairs memory, tau metabolism, and synaptic integrity of a mouse model of Alzheimer's disease with plaques and tangles. Neurobiology of Aging, 35, 1813–1820.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Fjell, A. M. & Walhovd, K. B. (2010). Structural brain changes in aging: Courses, causes and cognitive consequences. Reviews in the Neurosciences, 21, 187–221.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Fratiglioni, L., Winblad, B., & von Strauss, E. (2007). Prevention of Alzheimer's disease and dementia. Major findings from the Kungsholmen Project. Physiology & Behavior, 92, 98–104.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Gold, B. T., Kim, C., Johnson, N. F., Kryscio, R. J., & Smith, C. D. (2013). Lifelong Bilingualism Maintains Neural Efficiency for Cognitive Control in Aging. The Journal of Neuroscience 33 (2), 387–396.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Green, D. W. (1998). Mental control of the bilingual lexico-semantic system. Bilingualism: Language and Cognition, 1, 67–82.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
International Standard Classification of Occupations (ISCO), ISCO-08 2008.Google Scholar
Jack, C. R., Albert, M. S., Knopman, D. S., McKhann, G. M., Sperling, R. A., Carrillo, M. C., Thies, B., & Phelps, C. H. (2011). Introduction to the recommendations from the National Institute on Aging – Alzheimer's Association workgroups on diagnostic guidelines for Alzheimer's disease. Alzheimer's & Dementia: The Journal of the Alzheimer's Association, 7 (3), 257–262.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Luk, G., Bialystok, E., Craik, F. I., & Grady, C. L. (2011). Lifelong bilingualism maintains white matter integrity in older adults. The Journal of Neuroscience, 31 (46), 16808–16813.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Madden, D. J., Spaniol, J., Costello, M. C., Bucur, B., White, L. E., Cabeza, R., Davis, S. W., Dennis, N. A., Provenzale, J. M., & Huettel, S. A. (2009). Cerebral white matter integrity mediates adult age differences in cognitive performance. Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience, 21, 289–302.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Perquin, M., Vaillant, M., Schuller, A.-M., Pastore, J., Dartigues, J.-F., Lair, M.-L., & Diederich, N. (2013). Lifelong exposure to multilingualism: new evidence to support cognitive reserve hypothesis. PloSOne, 8 (4), e62030.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Prince, M., Bryce, R., Albanese, E., Wimo, A., Ribeiro, W., & Ferri, C. P. (2013). The global prevalence of dementia: A systematic review and metaanalysis. Alzheimer's & Dementia, 9, 63–75.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Scarmeas, N., Albert, S. M., Manly, J. J., & Stern, Y. (2006). Education and rates of cognitive decline in incident Alzheimer's disease. Journal of Neurology, Neurosurgery & Psychiatry, 77, 308–316.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Scarmeas, N., Levy, G., Tang, M.-X., Manly, J., & Stern, Y. (2001). Influence of leisure activity on the incidence of Alzheimer's Disease. Neurology, 57, 2237–2242.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Schweizer, T. A., Ware, J., Fischer, C. E., Craik, F. I. M., & Bialystok, E. (2011). Bilingualism as a contributor to cognitive reserve: Evidence from brain atrophy in Alzheimer's disease. Cortex, 48, 991–996.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Stern, Y. (2002). What is cognitive reserve? Theory and research application of the reserve concept. Journal of the International Neuropsychological Society, 8, 448–460.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Valenzuela, M. J. & Sachdev, P. (2006). Brain reserve and cognitive decline: a non-parametric systematic review. Psychological Medicine, 36, 1065–1073.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Van Assche, E., Duyck, W., & Hartsuiker, R. J. (2012). Bilingual word recognition in a sentence context. Frontiers in Psychology, 3, 174.Google Scholar
Van Assche, E., Duyck, W., Hartsuiker, R. J., & Diependaele, K. (2009). Does bilingualism change native-language reading? Cognate effects in sentence context. Psychological Science 20, 923–927.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Wang, H.-X., Wahlberg, M., Karp, A., Winblad, B., & Fratiglioni, L. (2012). Psychosocial stress at work is associated with increased dementia risk. Alzheimer's & Dementia, 8, 114–120.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Zahodne, L. B., Schofield, P. W., Farrell, M. T., Stern, Y., & Manly, J. J. (2014). Bilingualism does not alter cognitive decline or dementia risk among Spanish-speaking immigrants. Neuropsychology, 28 (2), 238–246.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed