Year: 2017
Type: article
Study design: Observational Study
Abstract: Objective: To analyze differences between bilinguals and monolingual participants with MCI in memory tests. It is well known that bilingualism offers cognitive advantages and may protect against the development of Alzheimer's disease, however, it is unclear whether the cognitive advantage of bilingualism is confined to executive functioning or may extend to memory abilities. Method: A sample of 57 participants diagnosed with MCI (39 females) comprised of 39 Spanish/English bilinguals and 18 monolinguals from the 1Florida Alzheimer's Disease Research Center. The language groups did not differ in age or education and had equivalent scores on MMSE and MoCA. Instruments: Verbal memory assessments (Logical Memory [LM-WMS-R], HVLT, and LASSI-LE) and non-verbal memory tests (Benson Figure Copy and Recall and Short-term Visual Memory Binding test [STVMBT]). Results: Univariate GLM analyses showed that the bilingual group significantly outperformed the monolingual group in LM-WMS-R immediate recall (F(1,56) = 8.3 p = .006, pŋ2 = .13), HVLT learning (F(1,56) = 11.89, p = .001, pŋ2 = .18) and LASSI-LE on two cued trials (F(1, 56) = 5.02, p = .029, pŋ2 = .082; F(1,56) = 8.68, p = .005, pŋ2 = .13) as well as one free recall trial (F(1,56) = 5.45, p = .023, pŋ2 = .09). The groups’ performance on non-verbal memory tests was equivalent. Scores on the Benson Recall (p = .43) and STVMBT color-shape (p = .85) and shape-only proportion (p = .96) were not significantly different between bilinguals and monolinguals. Conclusion: Results support the idea that bilingualism provides advantages for verbal, but not in non-verbal memory tasks. These results should be confirmed with a larger sample and longitudinally within the next 3 years.
Authors: V Torres, F Arruda, I Velez-Uribe, M Lang, R Duara, R Curiel, D Loewenstein, M Rosselli
Language: English
Subfield: Cognitive Neuroscience
Field: Neuroscience
Domain: Life Sciences
Open Access status: bronze
OpenAlex ID: W2750857622