Strong Language Skills May Decrease Alzheimer Risk

07/21/2009 - News

Strong Language Skills May Decrease Alzheimer Risk

By: June Chen, MD

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It is common to find Alzheimer disease lesions in the brains of elderly persons with normal cognition when their brains are examined at autopsy. This condition is called asymptomatic Alzheimer disease.

Individuals with strong language skills may be less likely to develop Alzheimer disease, even if they have anatomic signs of the disease, according to a study published online July 8, 2009 in the journal Neurology.

Researchers from Johns Hopkins University and their colleagues examined the brains of 38 Catholic nuns after death. The nuns were divided into three groups – those with memory problems and brain lesion, those with normal memory and signs of Alzheimer disease, and those with normal memory and no signs of Alzheimer disease. The researchers then analyzed essays that 14 of the nuns wrote in their late teens or early 20s to determine their language skills. They found that language scores were 20% higher in the nuns without memory problems, regardless of whether they had Alzheimer lesions in the brain.
 
Based on these findings, the researchers suggest that an individual’s mental abilities at age 20 may be an indicator of the brains’ ability to cope with diseases such as Alzheimer later in life. However, this is a very small study and these results would need to be validated in larger analyses.
 

Source:

Neurology. Published online ahead of print July 8, 2009.

Created on: 07/18/2009
Reviewed on: 07/21/2009

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