Bilingual Factors Associated with Cognitive Reserve and Linguistic Resilience in Hispanics with Primary Progressive Aphasia
Recent studies demonstrate that bilingualism can delay the onset of dementia by an average of 4-5 years. Stephanie Grasso (University of Texas at Austin) & Miguel Ángel Santos (Memory Unit at Hospital Sant Pau) received a R01 award (clinical trial) from the NIH’s National Institute on Aging (NIA) to establish associations between bilingualism factors and the onset, decline, and treatment response of Hispanic bilinguals (Castilian Spanish – Catalan) with primary progressive aphasia. Outcomes will also provide crucial knowledge regarding neural mechanisms of language re-learning and will address how the bilingual experience influences cognitive reserve and linguistic resilience in language-prominent dementia. Hospital Sant Pau will receive $1 million over the next five years. The grant total is $3.4 million.