Naming Performance in Bilinguals with Alzheimer’s Disease and Mild Cognitive Impairment

Abstract Introduction There is consistent evidence of a disadvantage in bilinguals’ speech production compared to monolinguals in healthy individuals, but studies investigating this phenomenon in clinical populations such as Mild Cognitive Impairment (MCI) and Alzheimer’s Disease (AD) are scarce. Given that both clinical groups are characterized by word-finding difficulties, understanding how bilingualism influences speech production in these populations is essential. Methods Early and highly proficient Catalan–Spanish bilinguals (active bilinguals) were compared to Spanish-dominant speakers with low proficiency in Catalan (passive bilinguals) using a picture-naming task. The study included 58 older adults, 66 patients with AD, and 124 individuals with MCI. Reaction times, accuracy, and error types were collected in the naming task in each individual’s dominant language. Results First, active bilinguals demonstrated faster naming latencies than passive bilinguals, particularly for low-frequency words. Second, active bilinguals with MCI exhibited more naming errors than passive bilinguals with MCI, including a higher incidence of cross-language intrusions and anomia. Third, passive bilinguals with MCI and AD showed more semantic errors than active bilinguals. Discussion These findings underscore the impact of second language use on naming performance in MCI and AD. Moreover, they provide insight into the potential mechanisms underlying lexical retrieval differences in bilinguals, including lexico-semantic processing and language control.