Bilingual people are twice as likely to recover from a stroke, study finds • Hacker News Board

Re: Bilingual people are twice as likely to recover from a stroke, study finds

#11

Post by grondilu » Mon, Nov 30, 2015, 1:26 PM UTC

Not quite related, but I'm wondering what it means to be bilingual. I mean, does the use of English on internet count? For instance, I'm French and I spend most of my time on the "english" internet, including YouTube, reddit, HN, IRC... I'd say 95% of my activity on the web is in English. I also watch american TV series and movies without subtitles.

I understand english quite well and yet, I haven't spoken English for many years. Does that count?

Re: Bilingual people are twice as likely to recover from a stroke, study finds

#12

Post by AnAfrican » Mon, Nov 30, 2015, 1:43 PM UTC

blfr wrote: post #4

This switching offers practically constant brain training which may be a factor in helping stroke patients recover. Another hypothesis would be that being in better neural shape to being with allowed them to become bilingual. Can someone... obtain the full pdf? Do the authors try to control this factor?

I bet most multilingual people didn't have to become mulitlingual.

Re: Bilingual people are twice as likely to recover from a stroke, study finds

#13

Post by nonbel » Mon, Nov 30, 2015, 1:55 PM UTC

barry-cotter wrote: post #2

Abstract of referenced journal article Background and Purpose—Bilingualism has been associated with slower cognitive aging and a later onset of dementia. In this study, we aimed to determine whether bilingualism also influences cognitive outcome after stroke. Methods—We examined 608 patients with ischemic stroke from a large stroke registry and studied the role of bilingualism in predicting poststroke cognitive impai…

This is probably some kind of testing artifact. Table 1 shows that 64.3% of monolinguals were literate compared to 92.9% of bilinguals. Then in the supplemental methods we see that illiterates took a different test than literates. They defined cognitive impairment as a score of under mean - 2*SD measured from groups consisting of ~80% literates:

>"The process of adaptation included culturally appropriate modifications of the original English version of ACE-R by examining each item for cultural relevance, translatability, comparable difficulty and adaptability with an aim of tapping the domain identical to the original version. Translations and back translations, and pilot testing were done based on standard procedures.3 ACE-R was adapted for the illiterate population by modifying literacy dependent items.4

Normative data and cut off values in the local languages- Telugu and Hindi were developed by administering the test to healthy controls. Telugu control group subjects consisted 907 literates and 199 illiterates, and Hindi control group subjects consisted 436 literates and 109 illiterates. Mean and SD for total scores and sub-scores in each domain were calculated across 4 age groups (20-39, 40-59, 60-79, 80 and above), and three education levels (>12 years, 4-12 years, 0-3 years), using standard formulae of Mean-2SD. Impairment in cognition was defined if the score on the ACE-R sub-domains was less than 2.00 SD below the mean level of age and education-matched norms."

Then we have the arbitrary age groups and education levels which makes this look p-hacked, there needs to be some assessment of how much those arbitrary choices affect the conclusions.

Re: Bilingual people are twice as likely to recover from a stroke, study finds

#14

Post by hollerith » Mon, Nov 30, 2015, 2:08 PM UTC

wibr wrote: post #7

wangii wrote: post #3

great, I know both HTML and CSS, and some javascript. seriously though, I think it would also apply to programmers using both functional and procedural languages.

I think most programmers can learn a new programming language to reasonable "fluency" in a few weeks, for natural languages it's more like a few years. Totally different except when you think of formal terms like vocabulary, syntax etc. which can be found in both and may have led to the term "programming language".

The chairman of the department of English at my local community college told me that it takes the average student of English as a second language 7 years to get good enough that a native English speaker might want to have a conversation with the student.

Re: Bilingual people are twice as likely to recover from a stroke, study finds

#15

Post by saint_fiasco » Mon, Nov 30, 2015, 2:18 PM UTC

grondilu wrote: post #11

Not quite related, but I'm wondering what it means to be bilingual. I mean, does the use of English on internet count? For instance, I'm French and I spend most of my time on the "english" internet, including YouTube, reddit, HN, IRC... I'd say 95% of my activity on the web is in English. I also watch american TV series and movies without subtitles. I understand english quite well and yet, I haven't spoken English fo…

I'm imagining some poor anon or redditor getting a stroke and only being able to communicate through memes.

I think if you can think in English, that counts as bilingual. Ever had a dream in English?

Re: Bilingual people are twice as likely to recover from a stroke, study finds

#16

Post by 55555 » Mon, Nov 30, 2015, 2:19 PM UTC

grondilu wrote: post #11

Not quite related, but I'm wondering what it means to be bilingual. I mean, does the use of English on internet count? For instance, I'm French and I spend most of my time on the "english" internet, including YouTube, reddit, HN, IRC... I'd say 95% of my activity on the web is in English. I also watch american TV series and movies without subtitles. I understand english quite well and yet, I haven't spoken English fo…

I can read fluently in Thai but writing is nearly impossible. I can understand (listen) with significant fluency but speaking is much harder. These are four very different skills, trust me.

Re: Bilingual people are twice as likely to recover from a stroke, study finds

#17

Post by [deleted] » Mon, Nov 30, 2015, 2:20 PM UTC

barry-cotter wrote: post #2

Abstract of referenced journal article Background and Purpose—Bilingualism has been associated with slower cognitive aging and a later onset of dementia. In this study, we aimed to determine whether bilingualism also influences cognitive outcome after stroke. Methods—We examined 608 patients with ischemic stroke from a large stroke registry and studied the role of bilingualism in predicting poststroke cognitive impai…

[deleted]

Re: Bilingual people are twice as likely to recover from a stroke, study finds

#18

Post by arbitrage » Mon, Nov 30, 2015, 2:39 PM UTC

grondilu wrote: post #11

Not quite related, but I'm wondering what it means to be bilingual. I mean, does the use of English on internet count? For instance, I'm French and I spend most of my time on the "english" internet, including YouTube, reddit, HN, IRC... I'd say 95% of my activity on the web is in English. I also watch american TV series and movies without subtitles. I understand english quite well and yet, I haven't spoken English fo…

Fluency in another language is typically understood to mean all aspects of the language ... reading, writing, speaking, and listening. You're not fully (bi|tri|quad)lingual without being able to do some part of those skills in another language.

That being said, you don't need to be the worlds best writer or speaker. You just need to have those skills.

Re: Bilingual people are twice as likely to recover from a stroke, study finds

#19

Post by oska » Mon, Nov 30, 2015, 2:43 PM UTC

grondilu wrote: post #11

Not quite related, but I'm wondering what it means to be bilingual. I mean, does the use of English on internet count? For instance, I'm French and I spend most of my time on the "english" internet, including YouTube, reddit, HN, IRC... I'd say 95% of my activity on the web is in English. I also watch american TV series and movies without subtitles. I understand english quite well and yet, I haven't spoken English fo…

In my opinion, yes. Fluency in a language is comprehension and production. What you wrote above was production of (very) fluent English, which was in turn evidence of good comprehension of the linked article. Fluency in another language implies the ability to dwell ‘naturally’ in the language, and I don't think that your dwelling mostly in the written form of the language would lessen the benefits that this paper suggests bilingualism can bring.

Re: Bilingual people are twice as likely to recover from a stroke, study finds

#20

Post by nathanasmith » Mon, Nov 30, 2015, 2:49 PM UTC

drd93 wrote: post #8

khgvljhkb wrote: post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'd wager most bilinguals are so not because they thought it would be a cool self-improvement project. I speak English because all the good movies are made in the US, and German because I live in Germany, and Swedish because that is what my mother and father spoke to me.

I would support your statement as well. I know three languages: one as my native language, other as my country's only official language, and the last one (English) is my general purpose language, meaning I use at to surf web, to study books, to watch films/series, to code, etc.. Would I learn any other language if I would be born in English society and English family? Doubt it. Maybe some other mainstream language ju…

As a native English speaker, born and raised in the US, it is a lament of mine that I can't justify the enormous time and effort needed to become bilingual. I guess I could learn Spanish, but why? It would be primarily recreational. And the time spent could almost certainly be more productively used picking up some other useful skill. Maybe I should just do it anyway in light of the more abstract benefits that the article touts.