Recent studies demonstrate that bilingualism can delay the onset of dementia by an average of 4-5 years. Miguel Ángel Santos, researcher at the Neurobiology of Dementia group at IIB Sant Pau and member of the Memory Unit at Hospital Sant Pau, together with Stephanie Grasso, group leader at University of Texas, Austin, have been awarded with an R01 grant (clinical trial) from the NIH’s National Institute on Aging (NIA). This grant will allow them 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.
Total amount of this grant is $3.4 million and the Hospital Sant Pau Research Institute – IIB Sant Pau will receive $1 million over the next five years.
