Strokes and Multilingualism

Researchers looked at the data of 608 patients, part of the Nizam’s Institute of Medical Sciences stroke registry in Hyderabad, India. Researchers found that there were twice as many bilingual patients with intact cognitive functions than monolinguals following a stroke. On the other hand, monolinguals suffered a higher rate of cognitive impairment than the bilinguals involved in this study. The study concludes that there were no significant lifestyle difference between bilinguals and monolinguals as age and risk factors varied similarly between these two groups.

The study involved using a cognitive evaluation tool for Telugu and Hindu called the Addenbrooke’s Cognitive Evaluation-Revised (ACE-R), as well as brain imaging techniques such as MRI.

Sources: Marta Cooper http://qz.com/561185/being-bilingual-could-mean-you-are-twice-as-likely-to-recover-from-a-stroke/ and the American Heart Association http://stroke.ahajournals.org/content/early/2015/11/19/STROKEAHA.115.010418.full.pdf+html