Bilingual people have more active and flexible brains, a new study has discovered.

Brain scans revealed that folks who speak two languages have increased connectivity between their brain regions, researchers reported Oct. 10 in the journal Communications Biology.

This connectivity is strongest in people who learned their second language at a young age, researchers noted.

“Our work suggests learning a second language during childhood helps build a more efficient brain organization in terms of functional connectivity,” said lead investigator Zeus Gracia Tabuenca, a postdoctoral researcher with McGill University in Toronto.

For the study, researchers recruited 151 people who either spoke French, English or both languages. Study participants were given MRI scans that tracked connectivity throughout their brains.

Learning a second language appeared to increase the brain’s neuroplasticity — its ability to build new connections within itself.

This effect was most powerful when someone had learned their second language at a young age, results showed.

“The results indicate that the earlier the second language experience, the broader extent of brain areas involved in neuroplasticity,” Tabuenca said in a McGill news release. “That’s why we are observing higher connectivity of the cerebellum with the cortex in earlier exposures to a second language.”  

These results mirror previous studies that show how brain regions work together to understand and produce language, researchers said.

Such additional brain connectivity can increase a person’s overall brain power, researchers said. Thus, learning a second language might help a person’s brain age more gracefully, and might even aid in recovery following a brain injury.

More information

The Cleveland Clinic has more on neuroplasticity.

SOURCE: McGill University, news release, Oct. 10, 2024

Source: HealthDay