The purpose of this study was to further analyze the effects of education on cognitive decline during normal aging. An 806-subject sample was taken from five different Mexican regions. Participants ranged in age from 16 to 85 years. Subjects were grouped into four educational levels: illiterate, 1–4, 5–9, and 10 or more years of education, and four age ranges: 16–30, 31–50, 51–65, and 66–85 years. A brief neuropsychological test battery (NEUROPSI), standardized and normalized in Spanish, was administered. The NEUROPSI test battery includes assessment of orientation, attention, memory, language, visuoperceptual abilities, motor skills, and executive functions. In general, test scores were strongly associated with level of educational, and differences among age groups were smaller than differences among education groups. However, there was an interaction between age and education such as that among illiterate individuals scores of participants 31–50 years old were higher than scores of participants 16–30 years old for over 50% of the tests. Different patterns of interaction among educational groups were distinguished. It was concluded that: (a) The course of life-span changes in cognition are affected by education. Among individuals with a low level of education, best neuropsychological test performance is observed at an older age than among higher-educated subjects; and (b) there is not a single relationship between age-related cognitive decline and education, but different patterns may be found, depending upon the specific cognitive domain.

Bilingualism may provide an advantage to older adults on inhibitory control tasks. This study examined the effects of bilingualism (balanced and non-balanced) on inhibitory control using simple and complex Simon tasks with samples of younger and older Spanish—English bilinguals (N = 125) and English monolinguals (N = 108). Results revealed a bilingual advantage on the simple task but not on the complex Simon task. Results suggest that bilingualism increases skills that are associated with selective attention when working memory demands are low.

Language development has been correlated with specific changes in brain development. The aim of this paper is to analyze the linguistic-brain associations that occur from birth through senescence. Findings from the neuropsychological and neuroimaging literature are reviewed, and the relationship of language changes observable in human development and the corresponding brain maturation processes across age groups are examined. Two major dimensions of language development are highlighted: naming (considered a major measure of lexical knowledge) and verbal fluency (regarded as a major measure of language production ability). Developmental changes in the brain lateralization of language are discussed, emphasizing that in early life there is an increase in functional brain asymmetry for language, but that this asymmetry changes over time, and that changes in the volume of gray and white matter are age-sensitive. The effects of certain specific variables, such as gender, level of education, and bilingualism are also analyzed. General conclusions are presented and directions for future research are suggested.