英語島雜誌

Can Learning a New Language Stave Off Dementia?

來源：The New York Times
難度：2
閱讀時間： 3

語言學習不僅僅是在腦海中增添新詞彙，更是一場啟發智力的冒險。一項重要研究顯示，在患有失智的人中，會說兩種語言的人平均比只說一種語言的人晚四年出現症狀。關鍵在於使用語言的頻率，因為雙語帶來的認知益處源自對母語的抑制，語言課程通過刺激智力來提高認知能力，而這在玩數獨和填字遊戲的人身上，也顯示出相似的效果。

By Dana G. Smith

My grandmother developed signs of Alzheimer's disease in her early 70s, and studies suggest that being bilingual can delay the onset of the condition by up to five years.
我的祖母在 70 歲出頭時出現了阿茲海默的症狀，研究表明，擁有雙語能力可以將這種疾病的發作時間推遲多達五年。

Drawn by that potential benefit, many people, like my father, have attempted to pick up a new language in adulthood.
在這種潛在好處的吸引下，許多人像我父親那樣，在成年後嘗試學習一門新的
語言。

The age at which you learn another language appears to be less important than how often you speak it, said Caitlin Ware, a research engineer at Broca Hospital in Paris who studies bilingualism and brain health. "The cognitive benefit is from having to inhibit your mother tongue," she said, which your brain is forced to do if you're trying to recall the right words in another language.
凱特琳·華雷（Caitlin Ware）是巴黎布羅卡醫院的一名研究員級工程師，專門研究雙語能力和大腦健康。她表示，學習另一門語言的年齡似乎不如你使用這種語言的頻率重要。她指出，「雙語為認知帶來的好處來自於你不得不抑制自己的母語」，當你試圖回憶起另一種語言裡正確的詞匯，你的大腦就會被迫這麼做。

In a landmark 2007 paper, researchers from Toronto found that among people with dementia, those who were bilingual developed symptoms four years later, on average, than those who weren't.
在2007年，在一篇具有里程碑意義的論文中，多倫多的研究人員發現，在失智症患者中，會說雙語的人比不會的人平均晚四年出現症狀。

Evidence for the benefits of learning a second language as a hobby in your 60s is weaker. Research by Dr. Antoniou and colleagues found that while Chinese adults 60 and up improved on cognition tests after a six-month language learning program, people who played games like Sudoku and crossword puzzles did as well.
對於60多歲的人來說，將學習第二語言作為興趣並從中獲益的證據不夠充分。安東尼奧博士（Dr. Antoniou）及其同事的研究發現，雖然60歲及以上的中國成年人在參與了為期六個月的語言學習課程後，認知測試的成績有所提高，但是玩數獨和填字遊戲的人也有同樣的表現。

To Dr. Antoniou, the limited findings are not entirely surprising. No one would say that learning a new language for six months "would be the same as having used two languages for your entire life," he said. But he does think that language lessons can
provide cognitive benefits by being intellectually stimulating.
對安東尼奧博士來說，這些有限的發現並不完全令人驚訝。他說，沒有人會覺得花六個月學習一門新語言，「和一生都在使用兩種語言是一樣的」。但他確實認為，語言課程可以通過刺激智力來提高認知能力。

Key Words: