Who conducted the recent study on whether the development of language skills affected Alzheimers?”
Study Shows Language Skills May Be Alzheimer’s Predictor Superior language skills early in life may stave off Alzheimer’s disease later on, even in people who have the brain plaque that is typically a precursor to the disease, according to a new study. Researchers from several universities and foundations examined the brains of 38 Catholic nuns after death. The participants agreed to take part in the so-called “Nun study,” an ongoing clinical study of Catholic nuns of the School Sisters of Notre Dame. The sisters were divided into two groups – ones with memory problems and signs of Alzheimer’s disease in the brain, and women with normal memory with or without signs of the disease. The researchers analyzed essays that 14 of the nuns wrote when they entered the convent in their late teens or early 20s. They looked at the average amount of ideas that were expressed for every 10 words written. Grammar complexity was also considered. The women with memory problems later in life scored 20 pe
The sophistication of language abilities attained in a person’s early twenties may predict the risk of developing dementia later in life. Alzheimer’s is the most common form of dementia, and is linked to the development of protein plaques and nerve cell tangles within the brain. However, scientists have questioned why these signs of damage cause symptoms of dementia in some people, but not in others. To find out, a research team from Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore recently conducted an analysis on the brains of 38 deceased Catholic nuns. The women had been participants in an ongoing clinical study known as the Nun Study. The researchers discovered that those with good language skills early in life were less likely to have memory problems. This was found to be true even if signs of dementia damage were observed in the brain. The study was published online in the journal Neurology. For the analysis, the women were divided into two groups of those who had experienced memory loss an
A research team from Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore recently conducted an analysis on the brains of 38 deceased Catholic nuns. The women had been participants in an ongoing clinical study known as the Nun Study. The researchers discovered that those with good language skills early in life were less likely to have memory problems. This was found to be true even if signs of dementia damage were observed in the brain. The study was published online in the journal Neurology. The researchers also analyzed essays written by 14 of the women during their late teens or early twenties and assessed the complexity of language and grammar contained in them. Results of this analysis revealed language scores 20 percent higher in women free of memory problems when compared to those women who had suffered memory problems.
