Academic Journal
Multilingualism and cognitive reserve in older adults with, or at risk for, Alzheimer's disease: Evidence from resting-state functional connectivity.
| Τίτλος: | Multilingualism and cognitive reserve in older adults with, or at risk for, Alzheimer's disease: Evidence from resting-state functional connectivity. |
|---|---|
| Συγγραφείς: | Coulter K; Department of Psychology, Concordia University, Montreal, QC, Canada., Dash T; Department of Communication Sciences and Disorders, University of Alberta, Edmonton, AB, Canada., Best T; Department of Psychology, Concordia University, Montreal, QC, Canada., Grant N; Department of Psychology, Concordia University, Montreal, QC, Canada., Ansaldo AI; École d'orthophonie et d'audiologie, Université de Montréal, Montreal, QC, Canada., Phillips NA; Department of Psychology, Concordia University, Montreal, QC, Canada. Electronic address: natalie.phillips@concordia.ca. |
| Συλλογικό Έργο: | CIMA-Q and CCNA COMPASS-ND groups |
| Πηγή: | Neurobiology of aging [Neurobiol Aging] 2026 Oct; Vol. 166, pp. 50-57. Date of Electronic Publication: 2026 May 25. |
| Τύπος έκδοσης: | Journal Article |
| Γλώσσα: | English |
| Στοιχεία περιοδικού: | Publisher: Elsevier Country of Publication: United States NLM ID: 8100437 Publication Model: Print-Electronic Cited Medium: Internet ISSN: 1558-1497 (Electronic) Linking ISSN: 01974580 NLM ISO Abbreviation: Neurobiol Aging Subsets: MEDLINE |
| Imprint Name(s): | Publication: New York : Elsevier Original Publication: Fayetteville, N.Y. : Ankho International. |
| Ιατρικοί όροι (MeSH): | Alzheimer Disease*/psychology , Alzheimer Disease*/diagnostic imaging , Alzheimer Disease*/physiopathology , Cognitive Reserve*/physiology , Brain*/diagnostic imaging , Brain*/physiopathology , Brain*/physiology , Aging*/psychology , Rest*/physiology , Multilingualism*, Humans ; Male ; Aged ; Female ; Magnetic Resonance Imaging ; Risk ; Aged, 80 and over |
| Περίληψη: | Speaking more than one language is hypothesized to lead to greater brain resilience in aging and Alzheimer's disease, resulting in a delay in the symptom onset of Alzheimer's disease. While previous research has used structural neuroimaging measures to explore the neural underpinnings of this protective effect, few studies have used functional brain measures. Thus, we used functional connectivity measures of resting-state fMRI data to explore the association between multilingualism and brain resilience in older adults with, or at risk for, Alzheimer's disease. Participants were selected from The Comprehensive Assessment of Neurodegeneration and Dementia Study and The Consortium for the Early Identification of Alzheimer's disease - Quebec, and included older adults who were cognitive unimpaired, those with subjective cognitive decline, mild cognitive impairment, or mild Alzheimer's disease. Half of the participants in each diagnosis group were monolingual (i.e., reported knowledge of only one language) and half were multilingual (i.e., reported knowledge of 2 or more languages). Within diagnosis groups, monolinguals and multilinguals were strictly matched on age, sex, years of education, cognitive impairment, and memory function. We examined average within-network functional connectivity of the default mode network using the CONN Toolbox. We observed reduced connectivity within the default mode network for multilinguals compared to monolinguals with Alzheimer's disease. Our finding suggests greater Alzheimer's disease neuropathology for multilingual compared to monolingual participants, despite being matched on measures of cognitive impairment and memory function. Therefore, multilingual participants show evidence of greater brain resilience by way of greater cognitive reserve compared to their monolingual peers. (Copyright © 2026 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.) |
| Competing Interests: | Declaration of Competing Interest The authors have no competing interests to declare. |
| Contributed Indexing: | Keywords: Alzheimer’s disease (AD); Bilingualism; Cognitive reserve; Default mode network (DMN); Functional connectivity; Multilingualism; Resting-state fMRI |
| Entry Date(s): | Date Created: 20260528 Date Completed: 20260613 Latest Revision: 20260613 |
| Update Code: | 20260615 |
| DOI: | 10.1016/j.neurobiolaging.2026.05.009 |
| PMID: | 42208339 |
| Βάση Δεδομένων: | MEDLINE |
| ISSN: | 1558-1497 |
|---|---|
| DOI: | 10.1016/j.neurobiolaging.2026.05.009 |