This collection brings together two areas of research that are currently receiving great attention in both scientific and public spheres: cognitive aging and bilingualism. With ongoing media focus on the aging population and the need for activities to forestall cognitive decline, experiences that appear effective in maintaining functioning are of great interest. One such experience is lifelong bilingualism. Moreover, research into the cognitive effects of bilingualism has increased dramatically in the past decade, making it an exciting area of study. This volume combines these issues and presents the most recent research and thinking into the effects of bilingualism on cognitive decline in aging. The contributors are all leading scholars in their field. The result is a state-of-the art collection on the effect of bilingualism on cognition in older populations for both healthy aging and aging with dementia. The papers will be of interest to researchers, students, and health professionals.

Judith Kroll, UC Riverside:
In the last decade a set of stunning discoveries about the consequences of bilingualism for older adults has reframed our understanding of the role of language experience for cognition and the brain. This collection of papers provides an overview of the most exciting findings in this emerging area of research. This work demonstrates that learning and using two languages provides a model of plasticity across the lifespan that is virtually invisible in speakers of one language alone. This volume will be of great interest to scientists who investigate language and cognition and the neural systems that support them but also to bilinguals themselves whose life experience reveals the impact of language for the aging mind and brain.