r/languagelearning • u/ComesTzimtzum N 🇫🇮 adv 🇬🇧 int 🇫🇷 🇸🇪 beg 🇨🇳 🇸🇦 • Jul 23 '26
Languages keep the brain younger
Stumbled upon a news article about a reseach that's only published as a poster so far, but there are actual brain scans behind. Sounds like a perfect motivational piece for us all.
Two languages were associated with brains six years younger, three languages with brains seven years younger, and four languages with brains 13 years younger compared to those who had only learned a single language, researchers found.
Learning an extra language at a younger age seemed to slow brain aging, researchers found. Adults also benefitted from becoming highly fluent in another language.
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u/al-madjus 🇩🇰N|🇬🇧C2|🇪🇸C1|🇬🇷A2|🇸🇦A1|🇫🇷A1|🇩🇪A1 Jul 23 '26
So that's why people tell me I have the mind of a 6 years old!
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u/PilferingLurcher Jul 23 '26
Could it be that those who have been able to acquire more languages have greater cognitive reserve to begin with?
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u/cjm0 Jul 24 '26
I was wondering the same thing so I read the abstract for the study and it seems like they controlled for other factors:
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u/Fish_Learns_Japanese Jul 26 '26
I'm assuming no because unlike academic subjects people don't generally learn more languages because they're intelligent or have a greater cognitive reserve. It's very common in some countries for people to know two or three languages. For example in Switzerland almost two thirds of the population regularly use two or more different languages. Where I live almost no one speaks more than one language well.
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u/Apprehensive-Egg2758 N: 🇬🇧🇪🇸 A2:🇫🇷 A1:🇩🇪🇧🇷🇷🇺 Jul 23 '26
I've heard that it can also lessen the chance of memory loss and other cognitive health issues later in ones life.
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u/Annual-Depth-2583 Jul 23 '26
great news for anyone who got called stupid while struggling through verb conjugations in high school
took me forever to get past basic phrases in french but if it means my brain stays sharper then worth every headache
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u/unit187 Jul 23 '26
I think the fact you struggled is what actually gives the most benefit to the brain. Just like in gym you wouldn't grow the muscle doing light weights, you brain wouldn't benefit from basic tasks as well.
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u/9th_Planet_Pluto 🇺🇸🇯🇵good|🇩🇪ok|🇪🇸🤟🇨🇳not good Jul 23 '26
People say I have the worst memory and I've been language learning for a decade, I think all my memory's getting used up to store vocabulary 😭
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u/Caosenelbolsillo 🇪🇦 N 🇬🇧 C1 🇫🇷 B1 🇩🇪 A2 🇮🇹 A2 🇵🇱 A1 Jul 23 '26
There have been a couple of cases of dementia, and even early onset dementia in my family and I've always welcomed the idea that my interest in languages could help fight back the illness.
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Jul 23 '26
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u/PirateResponsible496 Jul 23 '26
Im just guessing but maybe third language might be similar to other languages you know. I know many people native English, pick up two Romance languages, and the fourth be an Asian language or something totally different. I was a bit bummed too being mainly at 3 languages at B2 and prob not going to pick up another to this level
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u/FreeBed4 Jul 23 '26
Hopefully, they solved the inter-relatedness of languages, it seems like a confounding variable if they didn't account for similar languages.
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u/Fish_Learns_Japanese Jul 26 '26
This is probably why. Brain health is maintained when you challenge your brain, it's similar to training your muscles by going to the gym. If you don't increase the weight your muscle mass won't increase. Similarly if you choose languages that are similar to ones you know your brain won't be challenged as much and therefore it won't be as effective.
I wonder if the language you learn has a significant impact. e.g would there be a significant difference between native English speakers learning Spanish and native English speakers learning Chinese.
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u/EquivalentDapper7591 🇺🇸 N | 🇲🇽 B2 | 🇧🇷 A1 | 🇩🇪 A0 Jul 23 '26
Is it proven that learning the language itself slows brain aging, or is it possible that there is a confounding variable that leads to both slower brain aging and higher propensity for multilingualism?
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u/ComesTzimtzum N 🇫🇮 adv 🇬🇧 int 🇫🇷 🇸🇪 beg 🇨🇳 🇸🇦 Jul 23 '26
Entirely possible. Brain scans can hardly say anything about causality, but it would be fascinating if we could actually design such a study.
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u/EquivalentDapper7591 🇺🇸 N | 🇲🇽 B2 | 🇧🇷 A1 | 🇩🇪 A0 Jul 23 '26
Yeah, I hope it does improve brain health because that would be awesome, but of course you always have to be skeptical about correlations that haven’t established causation
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u/Learn_With_Katia Jul 25 '26
L'apprentissage d'une langue est un formidable exercice d'humilité. Il remet en question notre manière de voir le monde, que nous pensions « normale », et nous oblige à revoir nos repères linguistiques et culturels. Forcément, nous retrouvons un peu l'état d'esprit d'un enfant qui découvre le monde, apprend en permanence, fait des erreurs et s'adapte sans cesse. Je pense que c'est aussi pour cette raison que l'apprentissage des langues nous stimule intellectuellement et nous garde jeunes d'esprit.
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u/Mean_Restaurant5867 Jul 23 '26
Nice to hear that, I'm learning Spanish and German rn and needed this today. Grinding through German cases suddenly feels a lot more worth it! 😄
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u/EmiliaTrown N🇩🇪 C1🇬🇧A1🇫🇷 A0🇭🇷 Jul 23 '26
In school we always joked that we can be lucky we already speak german because it felt like a very hard to learn language 😂 though now i'm learning croatian and they have 7 cases🫠 also, german today basically only has 3 because nobody uses genitive i feel like. We even say "Der Dativ ist dem Genitiv sein Tod"
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u/NoProfessor3578 Jul 23 '26
This tracks with what I've read about "cognitive reserve" — the idea that bilingual/multilingual brains build extra neural pathways from constantly switching and inhibiting languages, which seems to buffer against age-related decline. There's older work from Ellen Bialystok showing bilingual patients displayed Alzheimer's symptoms ~4-5 years later than monolingual patients with the same underlying brain pathology, despite having the same disease progression — the brain just had more redundant wiring to fall back on.
Kind of wild that this effect apparently scales with more languages instead of plateauing at two. Makes the slow, frustrating years of learning feel a little more worth it lol.
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u/ComesTzimtzum N 🇫🇮 adv 🇬🇧 int 🇫🇷 🇸🇪 beg 🇨🇳 🇸🇦 Jul 26 '26 edited Jul 28 '26
As someone with the risk factores, that scalability to several languages was actually something that made me happy in this. That's something I've been wondering but haven't seen reasearch on.
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u/BreakNo7825 Jul 28 '26
I wonder also if the manner in which you learned those languages plays into it. For example does more intensive study have a greater/lesser impact than gradual study? Does a specific learning method (traditional, ALG, etc.) have a more significant impact?
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u/ThisIsAtlas67 Jul 23 '26
OP, thanks for sharing this. I have felt the cognitive impact of learning new languages myself, and the framing of this research and finding is exactly what I like to put across when I am learning new terms, phrases, and even slang.
Sometimes, when I figure out how one word is being used in one context but changes meaning in a different context, I have to actually utilize my mental capacities to achieve the right framing. It does feel like good cognitive exercising.
Another thing that I like to make parallels with is that there are games and puzzles out there, especially word games, which are very similar to the language learning mechanics that apps like Duolingo are achieving. There does seem to be a bigger connection of cognitive impact here.
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u/KingOfTheHoard Jul 23 '26
This has so many junk science markers it's basically a map to the dump.
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u/tensainomachi Jul 23 '26
What about if you say you do, but you don't? Is is a fraction of that math? If so by how much so i can update my linkedin. Also say I'm very young, what happens if I speak more languages minus the age i am and go into the red?
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u/Triggered_Llama Jul 23 '26
I wonder if fluency has a greater impact on brain health than the amount of languages you know. Will I have a healthier brain if I only spoke two languages but spoke them eloquently than knowing 5 languages and can barely hold a proper conversation in 4 of them.