Bar lecture: “Does Speaking Two Languages Protect Your Brain?”

​Nearly half of all dementia cases could be prevented or delayed by things within our control, according to the 2024 Lancet Commission on dementia. So here is the question for the night. If you spend your days switching between Spanish, English and maybe a bit of Catalan, are you also training your brain to age better? One night only, don’t wait to book your seat.

​🧠 Lecture: “Does Speaking Two Languages Delay Brain Ageing?”
🎤 Speaker: Dr Marco Calabria, neuroscientist, former dementia clinician and associate professor of neuropsychology at the Universitat Oberta de Catalunya
📍 Location: Barcelona, venue announced soon
📅 Thursday, 17 December, doors open at 6:30 PM

​More than half the world speaks more than one language. Some of the most cited studies in the field report that bilinguals show the first signs of dementia four to five years later than monolinguals. Other large studies found no effect at all. So is a second language real protection for the brain, or is something else going on?

​Very few scientists have come at this question from as many sides as Dr Marco Calabria. He began as a clinical neuropsychologist treating patients with dementia in Italy, and worked on magnetic brain stimulation as a treatment for Alzheimer’s. He then spent ten years at Pompeu Fabra University’s Center for Brain and Cognition as a Ramón y Cajal fellow, Spain’s most prestigious research fellowship for rising scientists. Today he is associate professor of neuropsychology at the UOC, associate editor of both the Journal of Alzheimer’s Disease and Bilingualism: Language and Cognition, a leading journal in his field, and has led three national research projects for Spain’s State Research Agency.

​Agenda
6:30 PM - Doors open: find a seat (open seating!), order food & drinks, and expect a bar line, arriving early is key.
6:55 PM - Host introduction
7:00 PM - Lecture begins
7:50 PM - Q&A
8:05 PM - Have 1:1 time with the speaker, mingle with fellow guests, and order another round

​See you there 🍷 IG: @deepdive.bcn

​This lecture will be held in English.