The physiology and functioning of a bilingual brain are different because it activates different neuron areas and because these brains have a greater amount of an insulating substance that lines the nerve connections we call white matter.

And what is the result of these physiological and functional differences? Well, minds that are more attentive, more flexible, more efficient, better at solving problems, with more memory and a wider concentration span. Not bad, right?

“César Ávila, professor of Basic Psychology at the Jaume I University of Castellón and researcher with the Brainglot neuropsychology and functional neuroimaging group, gives his opinion on this topic. MRI techniques used to examine the brains of bilingual and monolingual persons, when performing non-linguistic, but rather executive control or attention tasks reveal that  «growing up in an environment where two languages are used and where you have to constantly change from one to the other makes the brain more flexible to the environment and gives more capacity for cognitive change, which could also affect the way of being,» says Mayte Rius quoting Ávila in La Vanguardia.

Giving a child a bilingual education is a great thing parents can do for them.