The US researchers from Northwestern University say bilingualism is a form of brain training - a mental "work out" that fine-tunes the mind. Speaking two languages profoundly affects the brain and changes how the nervous system responds to sound, lab tests revealed. Experts say the work in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences provides "biological" evidence of this. - Halil from Bookmarklet

For the study, the team monitored the brain responses of 48 healthy student volunteers - which included 23 who were bilingual - to different sounds. They used scalp electrodes to trace the pattern of brainwaves. Under quiet, laboratory conditions, both groups - the bilingual and the English-only-speaking students - responded similarly. But against a backdrop of noisy chatter, the bilingual group were far superior at processing sounds. They were better able to tune in to the important information - the speaker's voice - and block out other distracting noises - the background chatter. - Halil

yes, found this very striking - Winckel