Learning a second language can protect your brain. Here’s how.
A new study suggests that everyday multilingual habits—from chatting with neighbors to revisiting a childhood language—may help preserve memory, attention, and brain flexibility as we age.
Aging rarely rewires the brain overnight. Instead, it shows up gradually—in slower recall, divided attention, and small cognitive slips. The real question for many adults isn’t whether this happens, but whether anything can slow it down.
While most strategies for improving short-term cognition and memory suggest leaning on odd brain teasers or cryptic crossword puzzles, new research hints that one of the best ways to stave off cognitive decline may be to broaden your linguistic abilities.
A recent study published in Nature Aging reveals that speaking multiple languages can slow brain aging, a process characterized by gradual declines in brain processing speed, attention, and other cognitive functions.
By analyzing survey data from more than 86,000 healthy individuals aged 51 to 91 across 27 European countries, researchers found that people who regularly use more than one language are half as likely to show signs of biological aging as those who speak only one language.
“What we found was that living in multilingual societies is actually delaying the cognitive and the functional decline that comes typically with aging,” says Lucía Amoruso, a psychologist at the Basque Center on Cognition, Brain and Language and one of the authors of the study. “We are all aging, and as we age, we start to lose our cognitive functions and to lose our independence.”
Researchers say multilingualism may strengthen the brain’s networks by continuously working them out, an effect that seems to become even more powerful when individuals train these ‘muscles’ by immersing themselves in diverse environments and cultures.
“It's about really using the language in your everyday life,” says Amoruso. “So the effects that we find [are] related to the real use of the languages in real contexts.”
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On a population level, speaking another language may slow cognitive decline so much that it could help delay the onset of neurodegenerative diseases, such as Alzheimer’s or dementia. On an individual level, it suggests something simpler: learning, speaking, and engaging across languages could be one of the most accessible tools for aging well.
How multilinguism reshapes the aging brain
The human brain experiences many neural stages over an average person’s lifespan. Scientists now have a clearer sense of when these shifts occur, but how they translate into daily experience—our memory, attention, or mental stamina—can be harder to pin down.
Naturally, age-related cognitive decline can be influenced by several lifestyle, physical, and environmental factors; yet, even after adjusting for factors such as wealth and education, the significant protective effect of multilinguism remained.
(Why it’s never too late to learn a language as an adult.)
The finding supports the idea that people who speak more than one language enjoy greater cognitive benefits than those who do not, says Viorica Marian, author of The Power of Language and a professor at Northwestern University who was not involved in the study.
“The longer you have experience using two or more languages, the better,” says Marian. “But you can begin to reap benefits at any age and after a relatively short time of learning another language.”
Past research has produced mixed results, but Marian says this study’s unusually large sample makes it a valuable step toward understanding how multilingualism contributes to cognitive reserve—the brain’s ability to adapt and compensate as it ages.
Still, questions remain. Researchers don’t know how fluent participants were in each language they used, or how factors such as language frequency of use, social context, and language switching shaped the results. But understanding these details, in combination with other untested variables, may open new pathways to study the mechanisms underlying the protective effects of multilingualism.
Even so, the everyday benefits of speaking more than one language extend well beyond aging alone. From stronger communication skills and more creativity to better concentration and focus, experts note that bilingual people tend to be more flexible at executive tasks like multitasking and decision-making. Multilinguism is also thought to create resilience to stress and other adverse mental health outcomes, despite some long-time learners suggesting that, like with any workout, switching between languages frequently can be mentally demanding.
What’s most important, though, is that regardless of when a person begins learning at 7 or 70, these benefits tend to be cumulative. “People often wait for the best time or an optimal time, but it's never too early or too late to start learning another language,” Marian says.
How language supports connection as we age
Polishing up your communication skills won’t automatically make you an overnight polyglot, but it could boost something just as important: social connection. As people age, social circles often shrink, increasing the risk of isolation and loneliness, both of which are closely linked to declines in cognitive and emotional health.
Language being the great unifier, it’s easier to connect with someone if you can chat directly with them, and immersing yourself in other communities or cultures by brushing up on a newfound skill is a great way to foster those social ties.
“In the case of the United States, a lot of bilingual people were born and raised here,” says Ariel Chan, an assistant professor at the University of California, Santa Cruz, who studies how bilingual language processing, cognitive mechanisms, and social dynamics interact. “They speak another language that is not English at home, and then they go socialize and go to school and work, [and] they speak English.”
(Why learning a new language is good for the whole family.)
Once acquired, unused languages don’t go dormant when another is active. Instead, bilingualism is a complex interplay between many parts of the brain. Those who can juggle these experiences with ease are likely to be more socially attractive and even have better self-esteem.
“Immersion is a big factor in how your brain is able to connect what you learn in the language classroom with culture and people,” says Chan. “A lot of people think that they can only learn a language formally in a classroom when you already have a very good place naturally to do that.”
Notably, even if you’re not actively working towards a new language, simply living in a linguistically rich community can also be especially beneficial, as the brain still absorbs and becomes used to hearing different kinds of speech sounds, says Chan.
(It may be possible to detect Alzheimer’s risk sooner—as early as your 20s)
Regardless, finding new ways to talk to others may not extend your life by decades, but it does add more weight to it. By encouraging curiosity, connection, and play, linguists say language learning offers older adults new ways to stay engaged with the world.
“The truth is, no one is perfectly bilingual,” says Chan. “One way is to recognize that and try not to be very fixated on certain aspects of language learning.”
