VOA标准英语2013--Study: Bilingual Seniors Have Mental Edge

 

Study: Bilingual Seniors Have Mental Edge

Previous studies have shown bilingualism seems to favor the development of heightened mental skills. The new research, published in Neuroscience, provides evidence of that cognitive¹ advantage among older, bilingual adults.

Subjects were divided into three groups: bilingual seniors, monolingual seniors and younger adults and instructed to sort colors and shapes in a series of simple cognitive exercises. The researchers used a brain imaging technique to compare how well the subjects switched between mental tasks.

Brian Gold, a neuroscientist at the University of Kentucky College of Medicine and lead author of the study, found the results showed different patterns of brain activity in the frontal part of the brain associated with the tasks. 

“We found that seniors who are bilingual are able to activate² their brain with a magnitude closer to young subjects," Gold says. "So they do not need to expend³ as much effort, and yet they still out-perform their monolingual peers, suggesting that they use their brain more efficiently⁴.”

Knowing a second language made no difference for the young adults in the study, who outperformed both older groups. Gold says the older bilinguals appear to have built up a kind of cognitive reserve from their lifetime of enhanced mental activity. 

Gold's research appears to confirm a previous study on bilingualism among Alzheimer’s patients. That study showed bilinguals developed more atrophy⁵ from the brain-wasting disease, but that they were able to function at the same cognitive level as patients with less atrophy. 

"[That] suggested that their bilingualism is helping⁶ them to compensate⁷ for that more [advanced] brain atrophy," Gold says. "The finding that we had is consistent with that because it basically says that bilinguals as seniors are able to do more with less.”

Gold says the study confirms bilingualism can play a functional⁸, protective role in the brain. Gold says his next step is to explore whether learning a second language or immigrating⁹ to another country as an adult can provide some of the same mental advantages as lifelong bilingualism.

1 cognitive   

adj.认知的，认识的，有感知的

参考例句：

• As children grow older,their cognitive processes become sharper.孩子们越长越大，他们的认知过程变得更为敏锐。
• The cognitive psychologist is like the tinker who wants to know how a clock works.认知心理学者倒很像一个需要通晓钟表如何运转的钟表修理匠。

2 activate   

vt.使活动起来，使开始起作用

参考例句：

• We must activate the youth to study.我们要激励青年去学习。
• These push buttons can activate the elevator.这些按钮能启动电梯。

3 expend   

vt.花费，消费，消耗

参考例句：

• Don't expend all your time on such a useless job.不要把时间消耗在这种无用的工作上。
• They expend all their strength in trying to climb out.他们费尽全力想爬出来。

4 efficiently   

adv.高效率地，有能力地

参考例句：

• The worker oils the machine to operate it more efficiently.工人给机器上油以使机器运转更有效。
• Local authorities have to learn to allocate resources efficiently.地方政府必须学会有效地分配资源。

5 atrophy   

n./v.萎缩，虚脱，衰退

参考例句：

• Patients exercised their atrophied limbs in the swimming pool.病人们在泳池里锻炼萎缩的四肢。
• Many hoped he would renew the country's atrophied political system.很多人都期望他能使该国萎靡的政治体系振作起来。

6 helping   

n.食物的一份&adj.帮助人的，辅助的

参考例句：

• The poor children regularly pony up for a second helping of my hamburger. 那些可怜的孩子们总是要求我把我的汉堡包再给他们一份。
• By doing this, they may at times be helping to restore competition. 这样一来, 他在某些时候,有助于竞争的加强。

7 compensate   

vt.补偿，赔偿；酬报 vi.弥补；补偿；抵消

参考例句：

• She used her good looks to compensate her lack of intelligence. 她利用她漂亮的外表来弥补智力的不足。
• Nothing can compensate for the loss of one's health. 一个人失去了键康是不可弥补的。

8 functional   

adj.为实用而设计的，具备功能的，起作用的

参考例句：

• The telephone was out of order,but is functional now.电话刚才坏了，但现在可以用了。
• The furniture is not fancy,just functional.这些家具不是摆着好看的，只是为了实用。

9 immigrating   

v.移入( immigrate的现在分词 )；移民

参考例句：

• I have to tie up loose ends before immigrating to America. 移民美国前，我先要处理手头上的一些琐事。 来自互联网
• Marrying an American citizen is a guaranteed ticket to immigrating to America. 与美国公民结婚是移民美国最佳的门票。 来自互联网