People with superior language skills early in life may be less likely to develop Alzheimer’s disease decades later, research suggests.
研究顯示，年輕時語言能力較佳者，數十年後，比較不會罹患阿茲海默症。
A team from Johns Hopkins University studied the brains of 38 Catholic nuns after death. They found those with good language skills early in life were less likely to have memory problems - even if their brains showed signs of dementia damage.
約翰霍普金斯大學團隊，在38名修女逝世後研究她們的大腦。他們發現，早年語言能力好的修女比較不會有記憶問題，即使是她們的大腦出現失智損傷跡象 。
The study appears online in the journal Neurology.
研究發表於神經學期刊線上版。
Dementia is linked to the formation of protein plaques and nerve cell tangles in the brain. But scientists remain puzzled about why these signs of damage produce dementia symptoms in some people, but not others.
失智與腦中蛋白質斑塊的形成以及神經細胞的糾結有關，但是科學家還是不了解，為什麼這些損傷跡象會在某些人身上造成失智症狀，在其他人身上卻不會。
They divided the women into those with memory problems and signs of dementia damage in the brain, and those whose memory was unaffected regardless of whether or not they showed signs of dementia damage.
他們將這些修女分成有記憶問題且腦中有失智損傷跡象，以及不管有沒有失智損傷跡象，記憶力也沒有受影響兩個組別。
And they also analysed essays that 14 of the women wrote as they entered the convent in their late teens or early 20s, assessing them for complexity of language and grammar. The study showed that language scores were 20% higher in women without memory problems than those with signs of a malfunctioning memory.
他們也分析修女在青少年後期以及20歲出頭進入修道院時所寫的文章，評估語言與文法複雜度。研究顯示，沒有記憶問題的修女，語言成績比有記憶問題跡象的人高20%。
新聞辭典
superior：形容詞，更好的。例句：She was chosen for the job because she was the superior candidate.（她拿到了這份工作，因為她條件比較好。）
tangle：動詞，糾結。tangled為形容詞，指糾結的，混亂的。a tangled jungle（密林）。
malfunction： 動詞／名詞，故障。例句：Shortly before the crash the pilot had reported a malfunction of the aircraft’s navigation system.（墜機前不久機長曾通報飛機導航系統故障。）
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