Higher Education Prevents Cognitive Decline
March 15, 2005
(Ivanhoe Newswire) -- Higher education could be one way to slow the progress of our aging. A new study shows college graduates can adjust the way their brains work in their older years to mitigate the effects of diseases like Alzheimer's.
Psychologists from the University of Toronto designed the study to help explain why some people can compensate for Alzheimer's disease better than others. Studies have shown highly educated adults are able to function better longer than those with lower levels of education.
The researchers wanted to know what parts of the brain were associated with this difference. They looked at brain activity in two age groups -- 14 adults between ages 18 and 30 with 11 to 20 years of education and 19 adults ages 65 and over with eight to 21 years of education.
The scientists gave each participant several memory tests while scanning their brains using magnetic resonance imaging (MRI). The scan showed which part of each participant's brain was most active while performing the memory tests.
The researchers found the older adults with higher education used an entirely different part of their brains to help perform the memory tasks. Study authors conclude: "Frontal regions are used by highly educated older and less-educated youth adults, and medial temporal regions are recruited by less-educated older and highly educated young adults. These data provide further evidence for an age-related alteration in the regions mediating cognition and suggest that the frontotemporal network engaged by the highly educated older adults may be a type of cognitive reserve or alternative network engaged to aid cognitive performance."
SOURCE: Neuropsychology, 2005;19:181-192
This article was reported by Ivanhoe.com, who offers Medical Alerts by e-mail every day of the week. To subscribe, go to: http://www.ivanhoe.com/newsalert/.