VOA慢速英語:Lifelong Bilingualism Gives Seniors Mental Edge

[00:00.00]From VOA Learning English, [00:02.77]this is the Health Report in Special English. [00:07.01]A new study adds to evidence suggesting [00:10.84]that being bilingual is good for the brain. [00:14.87]In the study, older adults [00:17.71]who have spoken two languages [00:19.80]since childhood showed better mental skills [00:23.69]than those who speak just one language. [00:27.08]Earlier studies showed that bilingualism seemed to [00:31.41]favor the development of these heightened skills. [00:35.69]The authors of the new study say their findings [00:39.72]provide evidence of that cognitive advantage [00:43.36]among older, bilingual adults. [00:45.80]"What is the functional basis of this advantage? [00:49.30]Is it because they activate different parts of their brain [00:52.38]that are typically used for doing cognitive control tasks? [00:54.98]Or is it because they use their brain more efficiently?" [00:57.67]Brian Gold was the lead author of the study. [01:01.10]Dr. Gold is a neuroscientist [01:04.29]at the University of Kentucky College of Medicine. [01:09.22]In the study, the researchers asked people to sort colors [01:14.75]and shapes in a series of simple exercises. [01:19.04]Dr. Gold and his colleagues used brain imaging [01:23.52]to compare how well three groups of people switched [01:27.95]among these exercises. [01:30.05]The groups were bilingual seniors, [01:33.24]monolingual seniors and younger adults. [01:37.48]The imaging showed different patterns of activity [01:41.37]in the frontal part of the brain, [01:43.76]in an area used for processing such tasks. [01:48.65]"We found that seniors who are bilingual [01:50.84]are able to activate their brain [01:53.82]with a magnitude closer to young subjects. [01:57.46]So they don't need to expend as much effort, [01:59.60]and yet they still out-perform their monolingual peers, [02:02.66]suggesting they use their brain more efficiently." [02:05.20]Dr. Gold says knowing a second language [02:08.94]made no difference for the young adults. [02:11.98]They did better at the exercises than both groups of older people. [02:18.11]But he says the older bilingual adults [02:22.40]appear to have built up a kind of surplus [02:25.73]from a lifetime of increased mental activity. [02:30.52]He says his research confirms a previous study [02:35.41]on bilingualism among patients with Alzheimer's, [02:39.59]a brain-wasting disease. [02:41.68]That study showed that bilingual speakers developed more damage, [02:47.56]but were able to think at the same level as patients with less damage. [02:54.09]"This study showed that the bilinguals [02:55.93]tended to have more brain atrophy, suggesting, [02:58.88]you know, the fact that they're at the same cognitive level, [03:02.06]somehow their bilingualism is helping them to compensate [03:05.82]for that more brain atrophy. [03:07.56]This finding that we have is consistent with that, [03:10.80]because it basically says that bilinguals as seniors [03:14.85]are able to do more with less." [03:16.79]Dr. Gold says he believes the new study confirms [03:20.88]that bilingualism can play a protective role in the brain. [03:26.31]He now plans to study whether learning a second language [03:30.99]or immigrating to another country as an adult [03:35.53]can provide some of the same mental advantages as lifelong bilingualism. [03:42.56]The study appears in the Journal of Neuroscience.

00:00

00:00

MP3下載 文本下載