Can the development of strong language skills decrease the risk of Alzheimers later in life?”
The sophistication of language abilities attained in a person’s early twenties may predict the risk of developing dementia later in life. Alzheimer’s is the most common form of dementia, and is linked to the development of protein plaques and nerve cell tangles within the brain. However, scientists have questioned why these signs of damage cause symptoms of dementia in some people, but not in others. To find out, a research team from Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore recently conducted an analysis on the brains of 38 deceased Catholic nuns. The women had been participants in an ongoing clinical study known as the Nun Study. The researchers discovered that those with good language skills early in life were less likely to have memory problems. This was found to be true even if signs of dementia damage were observed in the brain. The study was published online in the journal Neurology. For the analysis, the women were divided into two groups of those who had experienced memory loss an
Adding to the deep body of research associating mental acuity with a lower risk of Alzheimer’s disease, a study published online on July 8 by the journal Neurology suggests that people who possess sophisticated linguistic skills early in life may be protected from developing dementia in old age even when their brains show the physical signs, like lesions and plaques, of memory disorders.
