TORONTO, June 16 (UPI) -- Fluency in more than one language appears to slow mental decline with age, a York University study of 104 people in Toronto has found.
The research on the group between the ages of 30 and 88 reinforces previous studies that keeping the brain active can protect against senile dementia, the BBC said.
Dr. Ellen Bialystok and colleagues assessed the cognitive skills of all those involved in the study using a variety of widely recognized tests.
They tested their vocabulary skills, their non-verbal reasoning ability and their reaction time.
Half of the volunteers came from Canada and spoke only English. The other half came from India and were fluent in both English and Tamil.
The volunteers had similar backgrounds in the sense that they were all educated to degree level and were all middle class.
The researchers found people across all age groups who were fluent in English and Tamil responded faster than those who were fluent in just English.
The research appears in the journal, Psychology and Aging.
