Why bilingualism makes you smarter

Dow Jones. By Susan Pinker. To Read the Full Story. Subscribe Sign In. Continue reading your article with a WSJ membership. Resume Subscription We are delighted that you'd like to resume your subscription. Please click confirm to resume now. A consequence can be that the published research gives a false impression of reality.

In this case, it looked as if bilingual children were somewhat better in supressing irrelevant stimuli, and in adapting their level of attention according to different tasks. The most important consequence of this study, according to Gunnerud, is that those working with bilingual children will know more about what to expect from this group.

In particular, there has been a lack of knowledge on what is considered normal development for different groups of bilingual children. Several children who speak more than one language, have been misdiagnosed with difficulties.

Others have gone under the radar because their difficulties have not been identified. Hilde Lowell Gunnerud et. A systematic review and meta-analysis. Psychological Bulletin , Minna Lehtonen et. A meta-analytic review, Psychological Bulletin , Read the Norwegian version of this article at forskning.

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Several models have been proposed for how different brain adaptations might link to specific bilingual language experiences. A growing number of studies have also examined specific aspects of bilingual experience, such as how long someone has been using more than one language, the regularity or diversity of use, and the amount they switch between languages.

These studies crucially find that different language experiences have distinct effects on brain adaptation and performance on tasks measuring certain executive functions. For instance, in the early stages of learning and using an additional language, or if both languages are frequently used in the same setting, the brain adapts regions in frontal areas of the cortex regions highly used for executive functions to more effectively handle the increased effort required to select and control the languages.

However, if someone stays actively bilingual for a long time, other brain regions such as the basal ganglia and cerebellum also adapt. These regions are used to more efficiently or automatically complete a task, like your body can as you become more more physically fit or gain increased muscle memory.

Such adaptations in brain structure indicate a shift towards more efficiently handling of language competition. The next step is to figure out how much these different experiences and outcomes relate to one another. Recently, my colleagues and I have mapped what we know about the relationships between different bilingual language experiences and the different ways in which the brain might adapt to them. What about our original question: does bilingualism benefit your brain?

Well, it depends. Sport for a new generation — Birmingham, Birmingham.