Her good news: Among other benefits, the regular use of two languages appears to delay the onset of Alzheimer鈥檚 disease symptoms. Dr. Bialystok, 62, a distinguished research professor of psychology at 91亚色 [Faculty of Health] in Toronto, was for her contributions to social science. We spoke for two hours in a Washington hotel room in February and again, more recently, by telephone. An edited version of the two conversations follows.

Q. How did you begin studying bilingualism?

A. You know, I didn鈥檛 start trying to find out whether bilingualism was bad or good. I did my doctorate in psychology: on how children acquire language. When I finished graduate school, in 1976, there was a job shortage in Canada for PhDs. The only position I found was with a research project studying second language acquisition in school children. It wasn鈥檛 my area. But it was close enough.

As a psychologist, I brought neuroscience questions to the study, like 鈥淗ow does the acquisition of a second language change thought?鈥� It was these types of questions that naturally led to the bilingualism research. The way research works is, it takes you down a road. You then follow that road.

Q. So what exactly did you find on this unexpected road?

A. As we did our research, you could see there was a big difference in the way monolingual and bilingual children processed language. We found that if you gave 5- and 6-year-olds language problems to solve, monolingual and bilingual children knew, pretty much, the same amount of language.

But on one question, there was a difference. We asked all the children if a certain illogical sentence was grammatically correct: 鈥淎pples grow on noses.鈥� The monolingual children couldn鈥檛 answer. They鈥檇 say, 鈥淭hat鈥檚 silly鈥� and they鈥檇 stall. But the bilingual children would say, in their own words, 鈥淚t鈥檚 silly, but it鈥檚 grammatically correct.鈥� The bilinguals, we found, manifested a cognitive system with the ability to attend to important information and ignore the less important.

Q. How does this work聽鈥� do you understand it?

A. Yes. There鈥檚 a system in your brain, the executive control system. It鈥檚 a general manager. Its job is to keep you focused on what is relevant, while ignoring distractions. It鈥檚 what makes it possible for you to hold two different things in your mind at one time and switch between them.

If you have two languages and you use them regularly, the way the brain鈥檚 networks work is that every time you speak, both languages pop up and the executive control system has to sort through everything and attend to what鈥檚 relevant in the moment. Therefore the bilinguals use that system more, and it鈥檚 that regular use that makes that system more efficient.

Q. One of your most startling recent findings is that bilingualism helps forestall the symptoms of Alzheimer鈥檚 disease. How did you come to learn this?

A. We did two kinds of studies. In the first, published in 2004, we found that normally aging bilinguals had better cognitive functioning than normally aging monolinguals. Bilingual older adults performed better than monolingual older adults on executive control tasks. That was very impressive because it didn鈥檛 have to be that way. It could have turned out that everybody just lost function equally as they got older.

That evidence made us look at people who didn鈥檛 have normal cognitive function. In our next studies, we looked at the medical records of 400 Alzheimer鈥檚 patients. On average, the bilinguals showed Alzheimer鈥檚 symptoms five or six years later than those who spoke only one language. This didn鈥檛 mean that the bilinguals didn鈥檛 have Alzheimer鈥檚. It meant that as the disease took root in their brains, they were able to continue functioning at a higher level. They could cope with the disease for longer.

Q. So high school French is useful for something other than ordering a special meal in a restaurant?

A. Sorry, no. You have to use both languages all the time. You won鈥檛 get the bilingual benefit from occasional use.

Q. One would think bilingualism might help with multitasking 鈥� does it?

A. Yes, multitasking is one of the things the executive control system handles. We wondered, 鈥淎re bilinguals better at multitasking?鈥� So we put monolinguals and bilinguals into a driving simulator. Through headphones, we gave them extra tasks to do 鈥� as if they were driving and talking on cellphones. We then measured how much worse their driving got. Now, everybody鈥檚 driving got worse. But the bilinguals, their driving didn鈥檛 drop as much. Because adding on another task while trying to concentrate on a driving problem, that鈥檚 what bilingualism gives you 鈥� though I wouldn鈥檛 advise doing this.

Q. Has the development of new neuroimaging technologies changed your work?

A. Tremendously. It used to be that we could only see what parts of the brain lit up when our subjects performed different tasks. Now, with the new technologies, we can see how all the brain structures work in accord with each other.

In terms of monolinguals and bilinguals, the big thing that we have found is that the connections are different. So we have monolinguals solving a problem, and they use X systems, but when bilinguals solve the same problem, they use others. One of the things we鈥檝e seen is that on certain kinds of even nonverbal tests, bilingual people are faster. Why? Well, when we look in their brains through neuroimaging, it appears like they鈥檙e using a different kind of a network that might include language centres to solve a completely nonverbal problem. Their whole brain appears to rewire because of bilingualism.

Q. Bilingualism used to be considered a negative thing 鈥� at least in the United States. Is it still?

A. Until about the 1960s, the conventional wisdom was that bilingualism was a disadvantage. Some of this was xenophobia. Thanks to science, we now know that the opposite is true.

Q. Many immigrants choose not to teach their children their native language. Is this a good thing?

A. I鈥檓 asked about this all the time. People e-mail me and say, 鈥淚鈥檓 getting married to someone from another culture, what should we do with the children?鈥� I always say, 鈥淵ou鈥檙e sitting on a potential gift.鈥�

There are two major reasons people should pass their heritage language onto children. First, it connects children to their ancestors. The second is my research: Bilingualism is good for you. It makes brains stronger. It is brain exercise.

Q. Are you bilingual?

A. Well, I have fully bilingual grandchildren because my daughter married a Frenchman. When my daughter announced her engagement to her French boyfriend, we were a little surprised. It鈥檚 always astonishing when your child announces she鈥檚 getting married. She said, 鈥淏ut Mom, it鈥檒l be fine, our children will be bilingual!鈥�

Bialystok also holds an appointment at in Toronto. Her interview was featured on the front page of The New 91亚色 Times and was the site's most emailed story on May 31, 2011.

Posted by Elizabeth Monier-Williams, research communications officer, with files courtesy of YFile鈥� 91亚色鈥檚 daily e-bulletin.

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She accepted the Institute of Aging at the annual conference of the Canadian Association on Gerontology in Montreal. The prize, which augments major scholarship聽funding she has already received,聽included the money, an invitation to the conference and, best of all, a chance to adjudicate research posters.

鈥淚t鈥檚 perfect timing for me,鈥� says the first-year doctoral student in the Faculty of Health's School of Kinesiology & Health Science. 鈥淚鈥檒l be able to see what鈥檚 going on in my field. Winning this award has been very motivating."

Hawkins started work this fall developing and evaluating a clinical assessment tool to measure visuomotor integration (hand-eye coordination) that could lead to early detection of Alzheimer鈥檚 disease. For this, CIHR is funding her research to the tune of $35,000 a year 鈥� $30,000 in salary plus $5,000 research allowance 鈥� for each of the next three years. It鈥檚 the biggest scholarship Hawkins has ever received.

Left: Kara Hawkins

Sit down with Hawkins at her corner desk in the office she shares with other graduate students and you鈥檒l notice only one image taped to the wall next to her computer. 鈥淭hat鈥檚 my brain,鈥� says the 27-year-old of the vertical MRI scan taken this fall in 91亚色鈥檚 new Neuroimaging Laboratory, located in the Sherman Health Science Research Centre.

The brain. Hawkins became fascinated with it early in her undergraduate years.聽"You can't understand behaviour without understanding the brain. That's what interested me most."聽She started studying psychology then branched into kinesiology. It was a natural detour. 鈥淚鈥檓 an athlete,鈥� says the former varsity goalie who now plays forward for the Aurora Panthers and for the Ice-O-Topes, an intramural team at 91亚色. 鈥淚 wanted to learn how the brain controls movement.鈥�

After graduating in 2006, she jumped at an offer to work as a neuropsychology assistant at Baycrest, a centre specializing in geriatric research and care. 鈥淚鈥檝e always been interested in clinical applications,鈥� says Hawkins. Baycrest sparked an interest in aging and two years later she returned to 91亚色 to pursue聽a master鈥檚 degree and neuroscience graduate diploma, delving deeper into the neurophysiology of complex motor control. She won three scholarships to do it and graduated last spring.

Now a doctoral student, she鈥檚 back in a clinical setting. At 91亚色 Central Hospital, she is collaborating with the geriatric physician to diagnose aging patients who show signs of mental deterioration. Currently, doctors use language, cognition, memory and attention tests to score patients鈥� mental status out of 30. It鈥檚 an imprecise science, and Hawkins has developed and is testing a new measurement tool that could be more precise.

The tool looks like a laptop. There are two touch-sensitive screens, one vertical and the other horizontal (where the keyboard would normally be). The patient is instructed to reach for a target that appears on the vertical screen, at first directly with her hand and then more indirectly using the horizontal touch screen to聽manipulate a cursor. The test is not educationally or language biased, and Hawkins can determine which part of the brain the patient is using and the level of dysfunction based by the accuracy and speed of the response.

The brain is a complex network of communicating parts. When someone has dementia, the lines of communication deteriorate and misfire. Hawkins鈥� test aims to detect the breakdown in the visual-motor and cognitive-motor communication lines. 鈥淭hese touch-screen tracking tests tap into that.鈥�

Hawkins is currently trying to recruit 60 to 90 patients diagnosed with Alzheimer鈥檚 disease and the same number who are aging normally. Over the next three years, she鈥檒l test her diagnostic tool. She is particularly interested in finding out if it can detect early and more subtle stages of Alzheimer鈥檚 disease. Interested participants may contact her at karah@yorku.ca.

The earlier we can catch signs of mental deterioration, the more time there will be for intervention that could delay the onset, says Hawkins. Earlier and more precise diagnosis could lead to better education and better care for patients, she says.

Hawkins, now a member of the , is doing her research under the supervision of 聽Prof. Lauren Sergio, an expert in hand-eye coordination and director of 91亚色鈥檚 Sensorimotor Neuroscience Laboratory. When she鈥檚 finished her PhD, she hopes to continue exploring diseases associated with聽aging.

By Martha Tancock, YFile contributing writer

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The study, published today in the journal , follows up on a 2007 study led by 91亚色, which found that lifelong use of two or more languages keeps symptoms of Alzheimer鈥檚 and other forms of dementia at bay (see YFile, Jan. 15, 2007).

Led by the , the current study examined the clinical records of more than 200 patients diagnosed with probable Alzheimer鈥檚 disease in the Sam & Ida Ross Memory Clinic at Toronto鈥檚 Baycrest Research Centre for Aging and the Brain.

"All the patients in the study had been diagnosed with Alzheimer鈥檚, so clearly bilingualism does not prevent the onset of dementia," says study co-author Ellen Bialystok (right), Distinguished Research Professor of psychology in 91亚色鈥檚 and associate scientist at the Rotman Research Institute, which is part of Baycrest.

"Instead, our results show that people who have been lifelong bilinguals have built up a cognitive reserve that allows them to cope with the disease for a longer period of time before showing symptoms," she says.

While the brains of bilingual patients did show deterioration, researchers believe that the use of more than one language equips them with compensatory skills that keep symptoms like memory loss and confusion in check.

The research team included Fergus Craik, senior scientist at the Rotman Research Institute, and Dr. Morris Freedman, professor in the University of Toronto鈥檚 Faculty of Medicine (Neurology), and scientist at the Rotman Research Institute. They found that bilingual patients were diagnosed with Alzheimer鈥檚 4.3 years later and had reported the onset of symptoms five years later than those who spoke only one language. The groups were equivalent on measures of cognitive and occupational level; there was no apparent effect of immigration status, and there were no differences between genders.

The Neurology paper replicates findings from the team鈥檚 2007 study led by Bialystok and published in Neuropsychologia. That study examined the clinical records of 184 patients diagnosed with probable Alzheimer鈥檚 and other forms of dementia. It found that bilingual patients delayed the onset of their symptoms by four years compared to monolingual patients.

"Overall, bilingualism should be seen as an important tool for healthy aging, along with exercise, diet, and other lifestyle choices," Bialystok says. "It鈥檚 also another reason to encourage people in multicultural societies like ours to keep speaking their native tongue and pass it along to their children," she says.

The study was funded in part by grants from the (CIHR) and the to 91亚色 and the Rotman Research Institute.

Republished courtesy of YFile鈥� 91亚色鈥檚 daily e-bulletin

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In a soon to be published study three researchers from Baycrest 鈥� Ellen Bialystok, Fergus Craik and Morris Freedman 鈥� found in a study of more than 100 bilingual patients and 100 monolingual patients that the bilinguals experienced the onset of symptoms and were diagnosed with Alzheimer鈥檚 disease between four and five years later than monolingual patients.

Bialystok, distinguished research professor in psychology in 91亚色鈥檚 , Craik, a senior scientist at Rotman Research Institute at Baycrest, and Freedman, a neurologist at Baycrest, confirmed results from an earlier study in which they examined hospital records from about 100 bilingual and 100 monolingual patients.

Bialystok's research was profiled by .

She also for Discovery News:

A new study from the University of California, Los Angeles has revealed that the ability to speak multiple languages is associated with better mental capacities.

鈥淏eing able to use two languages and never knowing which one you鈥檙e going to use right now rewires your brain,鈥� Discovery News quoted Ellen Bialystok, distinguished research professor of psychology in 91亚色鈥檚 Faculty of Health, whose work has been cited by Jared Diamond of the University of California in his article.

Bialystok also added that bilinguals fare better at multitasking tasks, including ones that simulated driving and talking on a phone. However, being able to speak more than one language comes at a cost, she said. 鈥淏ilinguals have more 'tip-of-the-tongue鈥� problems,鈥� Bialystock said. 鈥淏ilingual children have on average a smaller vocabulary in each of their languages than monolingual children,鈥� she added.

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A leading scholar in the field of politics and media communications policy in Canada, Prof. Siegel was instrumental in shaping 91亚色鈥檚 Communication Studies聽Program. His writings and teachings contributed widely to our current understanding of censorship, press freedoms and referenda.

Left: Prof. Arthur Siegel

Prior to arriving at 91亚色 in 1976, Prof.聽Siegel was a successful journalist and wrote for Time magazine, Life magazine and Sports Illustrated, to name just a few. He also spent years working as a writer and commentator for Radio Canada International.

Prof. Siegel's family fled Germany on the eve of the Second World War, and he grew up in Trinidad. He聽studied at the University of California,聽Berkeley, Georgetown University and the Heidelberg University聽and completed his PhD at McGill University. His doctoral thesis compared English and French newspaper coverage of the 1970 FLQ Crisis.

Prof. Siegel was a devoted and dynamic teacher, colleague and a friend to many at 91亚色.聽Over the course of his 34-year career, Prof. Seigel taught thousands of 91亚色 students. He was an exuberant, colourful and inspired member of the University聽community and he always encouraged his students to aim high. He brought wisdom and laughter to聽91亚色 and he will be missed by his many colleagues in the Faculty of Liberal Arts & Professional Studies, his students and the alumni of the Communication Studies聽Program.

Prof. Siegel also聽worked tirelessly as a fundraiser for Toronto's Baycrest Centre, where he was chair of the Honour Roll and chair of the Men's Executive Service Group. He served as Editorial Advisory Board chair of the聽Jewish Tribune, and, at the time of his death, was on the Board of Governors of Tel Aviv University. He was also former president of Canadian Friends of Tel Aviv University. For several years Prof. Siegel was the chair of the Board of Directors for the Advocacy Centre for the Elderly (ACE).

Prof. Siegel leaves his wife Mireille, three daughters (Ariane, Alisa and Maura) and six grandchildren.

Funeral services take place today at 11:30am at Benjamin's Park Memorial Chapel,聽2401 Steeles Ave.聽West. In lieu of flowers, the family requests that donations in his memory be made to a favourite charity.

In memory of Prof. Siegel, the 91亚色 flag will fly at half-mast from sunrise today until 1pm on Saturday. Condolences and memories may be sent by e-mail to Alisa Siegel at alisa.siegel@sympatico.ca.

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91亚色 psychology Professor Shayna Rosenbaum has been awarded a 2010 Sloan Research Fellowship, which she says will help take her work on episodic memory to a new level, not otherwise possible at this early stage in her career.

鈥淭he award provides me and my students with the flexibility to continue a line of research that might be considered to fall slightly beyond the boundaries of traditional memory research,鈥� says Rosenbaum.

鈥淭he primary focus of my research has been on the nature and function of episodic memory and its relationship to other types of memory. It has implications for other aspects of cognition, such as future planning, decision-making and inferring other people鈥檚 mental experiences, that are not normally considered to be part of memory, and which I hope to study along with my students.鈥�

Left: Shayna Rosenbaum

Rosenbaum studies聽three general types of memory聽鈥� episodic, semantic and spatial 鈥� and how they relate to one another. Episodic memory, the ability to re-experience the details of personal life events, is the type Rosenbaum has focused on most recently, particularly how neural damage affects it. Semantic memory is knowledge about the world that is not tied to any one event, and spatial memory helps people find their way in any given environment.

Rosenbaum takes an innovative approach to memory research by combining neuroimaging methods, like functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), with neuropsychological testing of patients who have聽damage to the medial temporal lobes and prefrontal cortex. In this way, she is able to investigate how memory for personal experiences and the experiences of other people are organized in the brain, how such representations break down following neurological disease and how other aspects of cognition are affected by their loss.

鈥淚t鈥檚 an examination of questions that are聽of interest to聽those聽studying neuroscience as well as evolutionary theory, human development, behavioural economics, clinical populations and general issues relating to human nature and consciousness,鈥� says Rosenbaum.

She was one of 118 outstanding early career scientists, mathematicians and economists selected for a Sloan Research Fellowship by the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation. The winners are faculty members at 56 colleges and universities in the United States and Canada who are conducting research at the frontiers of physics, chemistry, computational and evolutionary molecular biology, computer science, economics, mathematics and neuroscience.

鈥淭he Sloan Research Fellowship is meaningful in that an international body of scientists, both within and outside the field of neuroscience, has recognized that research aiming to better understand memory and how it is organized in the brain might be both clinically and theoretically important,鈥� says Rosenbaum, who teaches in 91亚色鈥檚 Department of Psychology in the and the Neuroscience Graduate Diploma Program. She has also been an associate scientist at the at since 2005.

Her work is supported by the , the and a New Investigator Award from the .

The Sloan Research Fellowships have been awarded since 1955, initially in only three scientific fields 鈥撀爌hysics, chemistry and mathematics. Since then, 38 Sloan Research Fellows have gone on to win the in their fields.

Grants of $50,000 for a two-year period are administered by each Fellow鈥檚 institution. Once chosen, Sloan Research Fellows are free to pursue whatever lines of inquiry are of most interest to them and they are permitted to employ Fellowship funds in a wide variety of ways to further their research aims.

For more information, visit the Web site or 91亚色鈥檚 Cognitive Neuroscience Lab Web site.

The Alfred P. Sloan Foundation is a philanthropic, not-for-profit grant-making institution that supports original research and broad-based education in neuroscience, technology, engineering, mathematics and economic performance.

By Sandra McLean, YFile writer

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