{"doi":"10.1093/geronb/gbaf064","title":"Use of Multiple Languages Provides Cognitive Reserve Amidst Age-Related White Matter Changes","abstract":"OBJECTIVES: Bilingualism can stimulate brain plasticity and is often associated with better executive function. We investigated whether language usage was related to the volume of white matter lesions in a cohort of middle-aged to older adults with different multilingual characteristics, including monolingualism in daily life (use of one language), bilingualism (use of two languages), and multilingualism (active use of 3 languages, i.e., Catalan, Spanish, English). We also explored cognitive status and cognitive change over a 2-year follow-up period linked to possible associations between language usage and white matter status to provide insights into the theory of cognitive reserve (CR). METHODS: All participants (N = 397, age range: 45-69, 50.1% female) underwent cognitive and structural magnetic resonance imaging assessments at baseline, and 306 of them completed additional cognitive and neuroimaging assessments 2 years later. Active use of languages was computed at baseline with the Shannon Entropy equation, which measured the frequency of use of each language in 4 different contexts: home, work, friends, and family. The volume of white matter hypointensities (WM-hypo) was determined using FreeSurfer. RESULTS: There was a positive correlation between Entropy values and WM-hypo. Compared to monolinguals, participants using 3 languages daily presented equivalent cognitive function and increased white matter lesions, both at baseline and follow-up examinations. DISCUSSION: Among middle-aged participants with equivalent cognitive levels, active multilingualism was associated with greater white matter deterioration, suggesting increased CR.","journal":"The Journals of Gerontology Series B","year":2025,"id":532209,"datarank":0.0,"base_score":0.0,"endowment":0.0,"self_citation_contribution":0.0,"citation_network_contribution":0.0,"self_endowment_contribution":0.0,"citer_contribution":0.0,"corpus_percentile":null,"corpus_rank":null,"citation_count":3,"citer_count":0,"citers_with_citation_signal":0,"citers_with_endowment":0,"datacite_reuse_total":0,"is_dataset":false,"is_dataset_confidence":0.9589,"is_data_producer":false,"deposit_databanks":null,"is_oa":true,"file_count":0,"downloads":0,"has_version_chain":false,"published_date":"2025-01-01","fair_score":null,"fair_percentile":null,"algorithm_id":"datarank_citation_only_1hop_v6","ranking_scope":"data_only","authors":[{"id":583274,"name":"Gabriele Cattaneo","orcid":"0000-0002-7411-6829","position":1,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":696938,"name":"María Cabello‐Toscano","orcid":"0000-0001-5066-3476","position":2,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":1191190,"name":"Lídia Mulet‐Pons","orcid":"0000-0002-8884-136X","position":3,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":267968,"name":"Lídia Vaqué‐Alcázar","orcid":"0000-0002-6776-6559","position":4,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":1191191,"name":"Alba Roca‐Ventura","orcid":"0000-0002-9138-4294","position":5,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":583276,"name":"Vanessa Alviarez‐Schulze","orcid":"0000-0002-9702-8688","position":6,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":52278,"name":"Núria Bargalló","orcid":"0000-0001-6284-5402","position":7,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":583275,"name":"Javier Solana Sánchez","orcid":"0000-0003-0880-7856","position":8,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":106052,"name":"Álvaro Pascual‐Leone","orcid":"0000-0001-8975-0382","position":9,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":267972,"name":"David Bartrés‐Faz","orcid":"0000-0001-6020-4118","position":10,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":336235,"name":"Cristina Solé‐Padullés","orcid":"0000-0002-6653-1053","position":0,"is_corresponding":true}],"reference_count":46,"raw_metadata":null,"created_at":"2026-07-19T02:51:23.237536Z","pmid":"40197522","pmcid":null,"fwci":null,"citation_percentile":null,"influential_citations":0,"oa_status":null,"license":null,"views":0,"total_file_size_bytes":0,"version_count":0,"fair_f":null,"fair_a":null,"fair_i":null,"fair_r":null,"fair_zscore":null,"fair_rationale":null,"fair_model":null,"fair_agent_version":null,"fair_fulltext_source":null,"fair_has_llm":null,"fair_computed_at":null,"clinical_trials":[],"software_tools":[],"db_accessions":[],"linked_datasets":[],"topics":[]}