Want a younger brain? Learn another language
Summary
A large study of more than 86,000 healthy people aged 51–90 across 27 European countries suggests that speaking multiple languages is associated with slower biological ageing. Researchers computed a “biobehavioural age gap”—the difference between chronological age and a predicted age based on physiological, lifestyle and socioeconomic measures—and found multilingual people were about half as likely to show signs of accelerated ageing compared with monolinguals. The work, published in Nature Aging, builds on smaller studies linking multilingualism to better memory and attention, but uses a much larger dataset and computational methods to strengthen the evidence.
Key Points
- Study size: analysed data from ~86,000 participants aged 51–90 across 27 European countries.
- Primary finding: multilingual speakers were roughly half as likely to exhibit accelerated biobehavioural ageing compared to monolinguals.
- Metric used: the “biobehavioural age gap” incorporates cardiometabolic health, education, lifestyle and other factors to estimate biological ageing.
- Method: computational approach controlling for multiple socioeconomic and health-related variables to improve robustness over past small-scale studies.
- Implication: multilingualism may contribute to cognitive reserve and protect against age-related cognitive decline, though causality is not definitively proven.
- Caveat: observational design—while the association is strong, further work is needed to confirm mechanisms and rule out residual confounding.
Content summary
The researchers set out to test whether multilingualism can delay ageing, addressing inconsistencies in prior small studies. By calculating each participant’s biobehavioural age gap, they assessed whether language experience related to being biologically younger or older than chronological age. Multilingual participants showed substantially lower odds of accelerated ageing. Experts quoted in the article say the scale of the study makes the results persuasive and that the findings could encourage people to learn or maintain additional languages to support brain health. The paper sits alongside growing research on lifestyle factors that build cognitive reserve.
Context and relevance
Why this matters: ageing populations and rising rates of dementia make any scalable, low-cost protective strategy important. Multilingualism is a modifiable lifestyle factor that could boost cognitive reserve, complementing other interventions such as exercise and education. The study aligns with broader trends in neuroscience emphasising the role of lifetime experiences in shaping brain ageing. For clinicians, policymakers and individuals, it highlights language learning as a plausible avenue to support long-term brain health—while reminding readers that the evidence is associative and further research is needed to confirm causality and mechanisms.
Why should I read this?
Fancy keeping your brain sprightly? This piece tells you that learning (or sticking with) another language might actually help slow how fast you age biologically. It sums up a huge Europe-wide study, what they measured, why the result is interesting, and the limits — all in plain terms. If you want a quick reason to pick up Duolingo or join a conversation group, this is it.
Author style
Punchy. The reporting emphasises the scale and potential impact of the findings — it makes the case that this is more than a curiosity and worth paying attention to, especially if you care about midlife and later-life brain health. The tone suggests the result could nudge people toward action, but keeps a cautious note about causation.