Scientists Say This Useful Skill Could Shave 13 Years Off Your Brain's Age

Knowing multiple languages doesn't necessarily make you smarter, but it does help you maximize your brain's potential. Scientists have long studied the effects of multilingualism on the brain, and the evidence suggests that "juggling" between languages enhances executive function, focusing skills, and multi-tasking. Now, recent research presented at the 2026 Federation of European Neuroscience Societies Forum suggests another benefit to learning multiple languages: slowing down biological aging in the brain.

Hailing from a number of brain-health institutes, the researchers imaged the brain activity of 519 participants of various ages. Then, the data were processed by AI to model the "normal" brain connectivity for each age, which served as a chronological ruler of the average person's brain activity. After comparison, the multilingual participants skewed the average, with most producing brain scans that appeared younger than their actual age. Most remarkably, the more languages a participant spoke, the younger their brain appeared on the scans. High proficiency in any one language and earlier acquisition of multiple languages also correlated to younger-looking brains.

The findings suggest that multilingualism delays aging in the brain, and the duration and depth of one's language-learning enhances the effect. At its most extreme, quadrilingual participants, those who spoke four languages, had brain scans an average of 13 years younger than their actual ages. Their multilingualism didn't exactly turn back time, but it did appear to delay brain aging over time (likely for many of the same neurological reasons that adequate sleep improves longevity).

The team factored in other potential influences, like sex and generation, into the algorithm, but there may be other influential factors. For example, multilingualism is often the product of wealthier individuals who have access to higher-quality education and healthcare. Nonetheless, other research supports the positive connection between brain health and language.

People who speak two or more languages typically have the same risks for dementia as anyone else, yet the onset is often delayed by four or five years compared to others in their age group. Children, too, display clear cognitive benefits from bilingualism, since they're typically more adept at separating words from their meanings than their classmates. Furthermore, studies have shown that certain speech patterns can predict one's risk of cognitive decline.

Revealingly, a 2026 research study demonstrated how bilingual Alzheimer's patients can maintain normal cognitive functioning into the advanced stages for longer than patients who speak only one language. The researchers conclude that this preservative effect is because multilinguists retain a greater quantity of alternative neural pathways, allowing them to cognitively "bypass" the pathways damaged by the disease. Therefore, multilingualism not only appears to delay the outward appearance of Alzheimer's, but it also masks the cognitive symptoms from caretakers as well.

From a neurological perspective, multilingualism is essentially a workout for your brain. For example, a bilingual person must suppress one language to use another, similar to how English speakers must suppress the word "bark" of a tree when referring to the "bark" of a dog. This near-constant suppression of the other languages in their brains helps sharpen the executive control system.

Multilingual speakers also have a larger word bank to draw from when interpreting sensory perception and their symbolic meanings. For example, the color red affects different people's brains differently. And a 2024 study from Norway demonstrated that the brains of bilingual speakers interpret colors differently depending on the language.