Neurobiologists from across the country have discovered that students who are fluent in at least two languages are better at multitasking and less likely to face an early onset of Alzheimer's disease. The findings were presented at a conference in Washington, D.C., last month. "A lot of brain imaging scans have shown that being bilingual has changed the structure of the brain," said Lauren Mason Carris, a doctoral candidate in applied linguistics at UCLA. Read more...

Photo:

Second-year neuroscience student Yuta Ebikawa speaks both English and Japanese. A recent study found bilingual people are better able to multitask and are less likely to show early signs of Alzheimer’s.

But the increase could have been caused in part by changes in diagnostic methods, sources said.
In 1994, the criteria for diagnosing autism was broadened to include milder cases of autism. Read more...

Steven Kapp stared intently at the ground before him as he talked, avoiding eye contact and choosing his words carefully. "It's easier for me to concentrate if I'm looking at something that's not moving," he said. He had always known he was different, but didn't know why. Read more...

Photo:

Steven Kapp is a doctoral student in psychological studies in education and was diagnosed with Asperger’s syndrome. He refers to himself, however, as “autistic.”