In a fascinating study, researchers examined the brains of 872 people (post-mortem, of course) who had participated in studies on aging (while they were still alive, of course).
And what they found is that highly-educated people had exactly the same risk of dementia-related changes in the brain as did less-educated people, that is, higher levels of education did not prevent dementia-related brain changes.
However, they also determined that when they were still alive, those highly-educated people were much less likely to show symptoms of dementia than were less educated folks.
In other words, education provided a mask for dementia, probably because the more education you attain, the more coping skills you acquire, too, so that if you do start developing dementia-related abnormalities in the brain, and if we live long enough, most of us (probably all of us) will get some such changes, higher levels of education help you come up with strategies to resist the effect of those changes, at least for a while.
And what they found is that highly-educated people had exactly the same risk of dementia-related changes in the brain as did less-educated people, that is, higher levels of education did not prevent dementia-related brain changes.
However, they also determined that when they were still alive, those highly-educated people were much less likely to show symptoms of dementia than were less educated folks.
In other words, education provided a mask for dementia, probably because the more education you attain, the more coping skills you acquire, too, so that if you do start developing dementia-related abnormalities in the brain, and if we live long enough, most of us (probably all of us) will get some such changes, higher levels of education help you come up with strategies to resist the effect of those changes, at least for a while.
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