DIVA BARA

(TOHLE SICE NENI TEN CLANEK, CO HLEDAM, ALE PODOBNY ZAVER


https://theconversation.com/keeping-actively-bilingual-makes-our-brains-more-efficient-at-relaying-information-36045

Previous research suggested that late-immersed bilinguals show changes in grey matter structure, as well as processing of their second language similar to that of native speakers. So we predicted the impact of language immersion would be similar on the white matter for our bilinguals.
This is precisely what we found: compared to monolingual adults of a similar age, our bilinguals demonstrated greater white matter integrity in a number of regions of the brain related to language processing. This closely corresponded to the effects on the brain for early and older bilinguals.

Our findings further support the idea that bilingualism “reshapes” the brain, but also suggest that bilingual immersion is a crucial factor in the process. In other words, it is possible that the better preservation of brain structure that has been reported in older bilinguals is simply an effect of continuously using the two languages, rather than an effect of early language acquisition or lifelong bilingualism.
As a result, any effects of bilingualism on the structure of white matter in the brain seem to be independent of the critical periods when people are learning a language. Although it is possible that there might be a link between the increased connectivity between brain areas and the cognitive benefits reported in bilinguals, our study did not test for that and it’s well worth future investigation.