Multilingual people may have brains up to 13 years younger
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- Dr. Lucia Amoruso of the Basque Center on Cognition, Brain and Language presented the findings at the FENS Forum 2026, building on her earlier cross-country work suggesting multilingual nations may age more slowly.
- Four-language speakers showed brains roughly 13 years younger than monolinguals, while two-language speakers came in at about six years younger and three-language speakers at about seven.
- Multilingualism acted as a gradient rather than a binary, with earlier acquisition of a second language and higher proficiency both strengthening the brain-age effect.
- Researchers used magnetoencephalography on 728 people to build a "brain aging clock," then applied it to 144 Basque-region participants fluent in combinations of Spanish, Basque, French and English.
- The team next plans to test whether multilingualism slows decline in Alzheimer's disease and whether closely related languages yield a stronger effect by demanding greater cognitive control between competing word systems.
- Professor Christina Dalla of the National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, who chairs the FENS Forum communication committee but was not involved in the research, publicly endorsed school-based language learning as a brain-health intervention.
Why it matters: Among 144 Basque-region participants tested, four-language speakers showed brain-age gaps of roughly 13 years versus monolinguals — though the researchers themselves cautioned that lifestyle and social engagement could also drive the difference. FENS's communications chair used the forum to publicly endorse school-based language learning, giving the brain-health evidence an institutional boost.
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