Nun Study — Language Skills Determine Alzheimer’s Risk

Several media sources recently came out with results of a study of 38 Catholic nuns who donated their brains to science. In this nun study at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, researchers compared nuns with normal cognitive functioning at the end of their lives with those with cognitive impairment, including Alzheimer’s disease (AD).

Here are the results:

• 10 had Alzheimer’s
• 10 had asymptomatic Alzheimer’s
• 5 had mild cognitive impairment
• 13 had no cognitive deficits or brain lesions

Asymptomatic Alzheimer’s is when there are AD typical plaques and tangles in their brains, but the person still has unimpaired mental faculties throughout their lives.

What was the difference amongst these nuns? Those that had excellent language skills when they were younger diminished their chances of AD later in life. The researchers were able to obtain essays of some of the subjects when they were in their late teens or early twenties when they joined the convent. Grammatical complexity was unimportant, but those that were “dense” in ideas were less likely to develop AD or even mild impairment. The researchers do not know why superior language ability appears to be protective against dementia and AD, but suspect it has something to do with forming more synapses early in life.

Lead author of the study was Dr. Juan C. Troncoso of Johns Hopkins University. In Wired Science, he states, “It’s the first time that we show in humans that such a complex cognitive activity like idea density or language is connected with a neurodegenerative disease. Now with this kind of paper, we have shown that we should focus not only on what we can see in the brain, but also on what we cannot see, the connection between cognition and pathology. Our suspicion is that this is just the tip of the iceberg — there’s so much that we still don’t know about neural disease and the genesis of dementia.”

Related blog post:  Fear of Alzheimer’s. Click here.
Know anyone with Alzheimer’s? Advanced Russian adaptagens might help  with focus and mood. Click here to learn more.

Tagged with: Alzheimer • Alzheimer Disease • Alzheimer's Disease • Brain Lesions • Brains • Catholic Nuns • Cognitive Activity • Cognitive Deficits • Cognitive Functioning • Convent • Grammatical Complexity • Johns Hopkins University • Johns Hopkins University School • Johns Hopkins University School Of Medicine • Juan C. Troncoso • Language Ability • Language Skills • Limu Plus • Media Sources • Medicine • Mental Faculties • Mild Cognitive Impairment • Mild Impairment • Neurodegenerative Disease • Nuns • Placques • Risk • Russian adaptagens • School Of Medicine • Study Language • Tangles • Tip Of The Iceberg • Troncoso

Filed under: Alzheimer's • Senior Health

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