Barcelona, Spain: People who speak more than one language seem to have younger brains, according to research presented at the Federation of European Neuroscience Societies (FENS) Forum 2026 [1].
Our brains are made up of billions of nerve cells which need to communicate with one another. As we age, the connectivity in our brains tends to deteriorate and, as a result, our memory and the speed of our thinking also decline.
The new research found that the more languages people speak, the younger their brains appear. Learning an extra language at a younger age and learning to become highly fluent in another language also seem to slow brain ageing.
The research was presented by Dr Lucia Amoruso from the Basque Center on Cognition, Brain and Language, San Sebastián, Spain, who worked with a team from the Latin American Brain Health Institute at the Universidad Adolfo Ibañez, Chile, the Cognitive Neuroscience Center at the Universidad de San Andres, Argentina, and the Global Brain Health Institute at Trinity College Dublin, Ireland.
The researchers recently published a study [2] showing that in countries where people typically speak more than one language, people seem to age more slowly. In the new study, the researchers carried out detailed analysis on a group of people from the Basque region of Spain who spoke between one and four different languages including combinations of Spanish, Basque, French and English.
They began with a group of 728 people to create a 'brain ageing clock'. They used a technique called magnetoencephalography which measures brain activity by the faint magnetic fields produced when brain cells are active. The researchers used artificial intelligence to process data on brain activity in people of different ages to show what is a normal level of brain connectivity at any given age.
Then the team used this clock to gauge the 'brain age' of a second group of 144 people.
When they compared people's real age with the age of their brain, they found that those who spoke two languages had brains that appeared around six years younger than those who spoke only one language. For people who spoke three languages, their brains were around seven years younger, and for those who spoke four languages, their brains were around 13 years younger.
Dr Amoruso said: "In simple terms, people who spoke more languages tended to have brains that looked younger than expected for their chronological age. The effect was not only related to the number of languages spoken. Higher language proficiency and earlier acquisition of a second language were also associated with more delayed brain ageing. This suggests that multilingual experience matters as a gradient: it is not simply about being bilingual or not, but about the depth and duration of language experience."
The researchers took account of factors such as people's age, sex and education, but caution that they cannot rule out the potential influence of other factors that may have an impact on the brain, such as lifestyle and social engagement.
Dr Amoruso and the team now hope to carry out similar work in people with neurodegenerative conditions, such as Alzheimer's disease, where brain ageing and resilience are especially important. They also plan to look at whether speaking two or more languages that are very similar could have a bigger effect on the brain, as managing closely related languages may require greater language control.
Professor Christina Dalla from the National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, Greece, is chair of the FENS Forum communication committee and was not involved in the research. She said: "We know that many factors can influence our brain health and mental abilities as we age. For example, we know that not smoking, eating well, social and artistic engagement, as well as being active, can help. How we use our brains throughout life can also have an impact, especially if we engage in effortful learning that activates our brain.
"This study suggests that learning a second, third or fourth language could help our brains to stay younger for longer, and the earlier we start, the better. There are many good reasons for learning another language at any age – social, cultural and for the health of your brain – so we should support language learning at school and throughout life, even if it's hard."
