Bilingualism: consequences for mind and brain

Abstract

Building on earlier evidence showing a beneficial effect of bilingualism on children’s cognitive development, we review recent studies using both behavioral and neuroimaging methods to examine the effects of bilingualism on cognition in adulthood and explore possible mechanisms for these effects. This research shows that bilingualism has a somewhat muted effect in adulthood but a larger role in older age, protecting against cognitive decline, a concept known as “cognitive reserve”. We discuss recent evidence that bilingualism is associated with a delay in the onset of symptoms of dementia. Cognitive reserve is a crucial research area in the context of an aging population; the possibility that bilingualism contributes to cognitive reserve is therefore of growing importance as populations become increasingly diverse.

The neuroanatomy of bilingualism: how to turn a hazy view into the full picture

“…We note, however, that in this article we leave aside other potential differences that may emerge as a function of the knowledge and/or use of more than a single language, given that it is not the primary focus of this review. There is much evidence demonstrating that bilinguals outperform monolinguals in executive control tasks (see Abutalebi & Green, 2007;Bialystok, Craik, & Luk, 2012 for a review; see also Bialystok & Barac, 2012;Costa, Hernández, Costa-Faidella, & Sebastián-Gallés, 2009;Costa, Hernández, & Sebastián-Gallés, 2008). At a broad level, the underlying hypothesis for the so-called 'bilingual advantage' in executive functions is that bilinguals are used to constantly dealing with different languages and to preventing mutual interference between languages by selecting the target language while inhibiting the non-target language(s).…”

Language attrition and reactivation in the context of bilingual first language acquisition

“…In a context of increasing recognition that bilingualism and multilingualism are the norm and monolingualism the exception (Baker 2011;Crystal 1987;Dewaele, Housen, and Wei 2003;Romaine 1995, among others), and mounting evidence of cognitive and neurophysiological benefits of bilingualism (Bialystok, Craik, and Luk 2012;Schweizer et al 2012, among others), a child's simultaneous exposure to more than one language from birth can be seen as a shortcut to a wide range of assets at the personal and societal levels. This paper focuses on a case of bilingual first language acquisition, henceforth BFLA (De Houwer 1990;Meisel 1989;Swain 1976), and follows certain language development and maintenance patterns of a young Canadian child exposed to English and Bulgarian (henceforth ENG and BG) from birth.…”

L’impact de l’apprentissage d’une langue seconde sur les capacités pragmatiques : le cas des implicatures scalaires

“…Se pourrait-il, comme de nombreux auteurs le suggèrent, que le fait d'avoir à gérer deux systèmes langagiers améliore les fonctions exécutives telles que la résolution de conflits, l'attention ou l'inhibition ? Cette amélioration pourrait conférer un avantage aux multilingues dans les tâches comportementales et ainsi expliquer nos résultats (voir par exemple Bialystok et al 2012). En outre, choisir entre une interprétation pragmatique et une alternative sémantique s'apparente à une tâche de résolution de conflits.…”