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Friday 17 Jul 2015 - 13:46 Makkah mean time-1-10-1436
 Washington, (IINA) - People who speak two or more languages have more grey matter in certain parts of their brain, a study has found, Daily Mail health news reported.
But this difference is not present if the other language known is sign language.
Scientists found that being bilingual increases the size of the part of the brain responsible for attention span and short-term memory. But recent research has found they perform better on tasks that require attention, inhibition and short-term memory - collectively termed 'executive control' - than their monolingual peers.
Yet controversy still surrounded whether there was a 'bilingual advantage', because these differences were not observed in all studies.
Now a study by Georgetown University Medical Centre in Washington DC has found adults who are polyglots have more grey matter, but those who use sign language do not.
It adds to a growing understanding of how long-term experience with a particular skill - in this case management of two languages - changes the brain.
Dr Guinevere Eden said: 'Inconsistencies in the reports about the bilingual advantage stem primarily from the variety of tasks that are used in attempts to elicit the advantage.
'Given this concern, we took a different approach and instead compared grey matter volume between adult bilinguals and monolinguals.
'We reasoned that the experience with two languages and the increased need for cognitive control to use them appropriately would result in brain changes in Spanish-English bilinguals when compared with English-speaking monolinguals.
“And in fact greater grey matter for bilinguals was observed in frontal and parietal brain regions that are involved in executive control.”
The study, published in the journal Cerebral Cortex, explored why differences in grey matter are based on experiences.
Dr Olumide Olulade said: 'Our aim was to address whether the constant management of two spoken languages leads to cognitive advantages and the larger grey matter we observed in Spanish-English bilinguals, or whether other aspects of being bilingual, such as the large vocabulary associated with having two languages, could account for this.'
SM/IINA
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