Every 40 seconds, someone in the United States has a stroke, and, each year, about 800,000 Americans have a stroke. Stroke is one of the leading causes of death in the United States. Recovery for stroke survivors can be difficult due to the brain damage that occurs, which can severely impair cognitive function. A stroke occurs when blood flow to a part of the brain is cut off and brain cells start dying due to lack of oxygen, causing brain damage. Brain damage caused by a stroke can happen in either the left or right hemisphere, and cognitive impairment for each patient can vary, depending on which side was affected. Damage to the right hemisphere can cause problems in emotions and behavior, while damage to the left hemisphere can cause personality changes and trouble with communication. However, a study has found that patients’ ability to fluently speak at least two languages can protect against cognitive impairment after having a stroke.
Image Source: JACOPIN /BSIP
The study was conducted by a team of researchers led by Dr. Subhash Kaul at Nizam’s Institute of Medical Sciences (NIMS) in India. The team looked over data from 2006-2013 on 608 stroke patients that were part of the NIMS stroke registry in Hyderabad, India. About half of the patients were bilingual, and the team examined how stroke affected each person.
The team discovered that the bilingual patients, compared to patients that only spoke one language (monolingual), had a greater chance of having normal cognitive function after stroke. About 40% of bilingual patients had normal cognitive function, whereas only 20% of the monolingual patients had normal cognitive function. The bilingual patients also got better results on memory and attention tests post-stroke than their monolingual counterparts. Surprisingly, no differences were found between the two groups in their chances of having aphasia—a language disorder that makes it difficult to communicate—after a stroke.
Researchers believe that the results of the study are due to bilingual people’s ability to easily and quickly switch back and forth between languages. Also, since bilingual people have a mixed vocabulary, it is harder for them to identify individual words in conversation, so their memory may be self-enhanced due to the extra effort put into identifying words. Whatever the case may be, this study has produced significant results, though more research still needs to be conducted on strokes and their effects on the brain.
Feature Image Source: stroke by Joe Goldberg
