According to a study appearing in the February 2007 issue of Neuropsychologia (Vol.45, No.2), bilingualism can delay the onset of dementia by about 4 years. This is probably because if you speak two languages, when you get older and people start calling you crazy you can fall back on your second language and start babbling away. Nobody will know the difference because they won't understand what you are saying! "Dave doesn't have dementia, he just likes speaking in French now."
Anyways, I thought this result was kind of interesting. I wonder if knowing 10 programming languages, or knowing how to read music has the same effect. Are verbal languages special? Or will any "language" do? Furthermore, is it not languages at all that delays dementia but instead some of general "brain exercise" that delays it. Maybe the brains' of people who speak more than 1 language get more exercise than other people. You know, kind of like if you exercise your heart/body it will work better and last longer. Or, is this just one of those things where it is not specifically an extra language that delays dementia but that the type of person who would learn two or more languages (or to have acquired two or more languages) and maintain fluency is the type of person who would have lived longer anyways for some other reason? Kind of like the type of person who drinks 1 glass of wine per day is the same type of person who can afford regular purchases of bottles of wine, and can thus also afford a gym membership, thus maintaining a healthy body and extending their lifespan (yes I don't buy the glass-a-day makes you live longer crap).
Credit goes to Slashdot for pointing me to this article.
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