The Study
How age of acquisition influences brain architecture in bilinguals
This study looked at how the brain looks in people who learned a second language at different ages. It found that some brain areas were bigger or smaller depending on when they learned the language, but it didn’t prove that learning early made those changes happen — maybe those people were born with slightly different brains.
Analysis score
Maximum 44 for a cross-sectional study.
Where the score came from
Kids who learn two languages early have bigger brain areas for switching languages, while people who learn later use different brain areas for thinking about word meanings.
Where does this study sit?
Reviews of RCTs (Meta-analyses)
Max 100Randomized Trials
Max 90Reviews of Cohort Studies
Max 85Cohort Studies
Max 72Reviews of Case-Control Studies
Max 63Case-Control Studies
Max 58Cross-Sectional & Case Series
Max 50Expert Opinion
Max 541 / 100
Quality score
Snapshots of a population at a single point in time, or descriptions of small groups. Can identify correlations and prevalence, but cannot determine cause and effect.
Key takeaways
Summary
Based on the study abstract and findings.
- 1These differences are as big as the natural brain changes seen over 6–13 years of aging — meaning early bilinguals’ brains look younger in key areas.
- 2Early learners had 230 mm³ more brain volume in the right angular gyrus and 179 mm³ more in the right superior parietal lobule for each year earlier they learned their second language.
Score breakdown, methodology, conflicts of interest, evidence analysis & raw study data
Publication
Journal
Journal of neurolinguistics
Year
2015
Authors
Miao Wei, Anand A. Joshi, Mingxia Zhang, Leilei Mei, Zhonglin Lu
Related Content
Claims (6)
People who speak multiple languages have brain structures that are 6 to 13 years younger in appearance compared to people who speak only one language.
Adults who learned a second language later in life have larger volume and greater cortical surface area in a specific region of the right frontal brain area compared to those who learned earlier.
In people who learn a second language at different ages, the right hemisphere's superior parietal lobule and angular gyrus show more consistent structural differences related to when the language was learned than the same regions in the left hemisphere.
Adults who learned a second language at a younger age have larger total brain volume, more grey matter, and greater cortical surface area in the right superior parietal lobule and right angular gyrus compared to those who learned later.
People who learn a second language as children have larger parietal brain regions, while those who learn it as adults have larger frontal brain regions.
People who learn a second language at a younger age have measurable differences in the structure of two specific brain regions compared to those who learn later, even when accounting for how well they speak it now or how much they use it.
Not medical advice. For informational purposes only. Always consult a qualified healthcare professional before making health decisions.