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Influence of young adult cognitive ability and additional education on later-life cognition.

ABSTRACT: How and when education improves cognitive capacity is an issue of profound societal importance. Education and later-life education-related factors, such as occupational complexity and engagement in cognitive-intellectual activities, are frequently considered indices of cognitive reserve, but whether their effects are truly causal remains unclear. In this study, after accounting for general cognitive ability (GCA) at an average age of 20 y, additional education, occupational complexity, or engagement in cognitive-intellectual activities accounted for little variance in late midlife cognitive functioning in men age 56-66 (n = 1009). Age 20 GCA accounted for 40% of variance in the same measure in late midlife and approximately 10% of variance in each of seven cognitive domains. The other factors each accounted for <1% of the variance in cognitive outcomes. The impact of these other factors likely reflects reverse causation-namely, downstream effects of early adult GCA. Supporting that idea, age 20 GCA, but not education, was associated with late midlife cortical surface area (n = 367). In our view, the most parsimonious explanation of our results, a meta-analysis of the impact of education, and epidemiologic studies of the Flynn effect is that intellectual capacity gains due to education plateau in late adolescence/early adulthood. Longitudinal studies with multiple cognitive assessments before completion of education would be needed to confirm this speculation. If cognitive gains reach an asymptote by early adulthood, then strengthening cognitive reserve and reducing later-life cognitive decline and dementia risk may really begin with improving educational quality and access in childhood and adolescence.

SUBMITTER: Kremen WS

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6369818 | biostudies-literature | 2019 Feb

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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Influence of young adult cognitive ability and additional education on later-life cognition.

Kremen William S WS Beck Asad A Elman Jeremy A JA Gustavson Daniel E DE Reynolds Chandra A CA Tu Xin M XM Sanderson-Cimino Mark E ME Panizzon Matthew S MS Vuoksimaa Eero E Toomey Rosemary R Fennema-Notestine Christine C Hagler Donald J DJ Fang Bin B Dale Anders M AM Lyons Michael J MJ Franz Carol E CE

Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America 20190122 6

How and when education improves cognitive capacity is an issue of profound societal importance. Education and later-life education-related factors, such as occupational complexity and engagement in cognitive-intellectual activities, are frequently considered indices of cognitive reserve, but whether their effects are truly causal remains unclear. In this study, after accounting for general cognitive ability (GCA) at an average age of 20 y, additional education, occupational complexity, or engage ...[more]

PMID: 30670647

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Project description:IntroductionThe hippocampus plays an important role in cognitive abilities which often decline with advancing age.MethodsIn a longitudinal study of community-dwelling adults, we investigated whether there were coupled changes in hippocampal structure and verbal memory, working memory, and processing speed between the ages of 73 (N = 655) and 76 years (N = 469). Hippocampal structure was indexed by hippocampal volume, hippocampal volume as a percentage of intracranial volume (H_ICV), fractional anisotropy (FA), mean diffusivity (MD), and longitudinal relaxation time (T1).ResultsMean levels of hippocampal volume, H_ICV, FA, T1, and all three cognitive abilities domains decreased, whereas MD increased, from age 73 to 76. At baseline, higher hippocampal volume was associated with better working memory and verbal memory, but none of these correlations survived correction for multiple comparisons. Higher FA, lower MD, and lower T1 at baseline were associated with better cognitive abilities in all three domains; only the correlation between baseline hippocampal MD and T1, and change in the three cognitive domains, survived correction for multiple comparisons. Individuals with higher hippocampal MD at age 73 experienced a greater decline in all three cognitive abilities between ages 73 and 76. However, no significant associations with changes in cognitive abilities were found with hippocampal volume, FA, and T1 measures at baseline. Similarly, no significant associations were found between cognitive abilities at age 73 and changes in the hippocampal MRI biomarkers between ages 73 and 76.ConclusionOur results provide evidence to better understand how the hippocampus ages in healthy adults in relation to the cognitive domains in which it is involved, suggesting that better hippocampal MD at age 73 predicts less relative decline in three important cognitive domains across the next 3 years. It can potentially assist in diagnosing early stages of aging-related neuropathologies, because in some cases, accelerated decline could predict pathologies.

Project description:BACKGROUND:Depression after stroke is common and is associated with poorer recovery. Risk factors such as gender, age and stroke severity are established, but it is unclear whether factors from earlier in life might also contribute. METHODS:We searched MEDLINE, PsycINFO, EMBASE and meta-analysed all available evidence on childhood (premorbid) IQ, socioeconomic status (SES), education and stroke in adulthood. We included all studies reporting data on >50 patients, calculating overall odds ratios (OR), mean difference, correlation, 95% confidence intervals (CI) and 95% predictive intervals (PI) using random effects methods. We quality assessed all studies, performed sensitivity analyses, assessed heterogeneity and publication bias. RESULTS:We identified 33 studies including 2,664 participants with post-stroke depression and 5,460 without (314 participants not classified). Low education (< = 8 years) was associated with post-stroke depression in studies which defined depression as score of mild and above on a depression rating scale (OR 1.47 95% CI 1.10-1.97, p<0.01) but not in studies where depression was defined as severe depressive symptoms or a clinical diagnosis of major depression (OR 1.04 95% CI 0.90-1.31, p = 0.60). Low education was not associated with an increased risk for post-stroke depression in studies that adjusted for age and sex (OR 0.86 95% CI 0.50-1.48 p = 0.58). Those with post-stroke depression had fewer years of education than those without post-stroke depression (MD 0.68 95% CI 0.05-1.31 p = 0.04). Few studies adjusted for vascular risk factors or stroke severity. Heterogeneity between studies was moderate and was partly explained by severity of depression. In the one study identified premorbid IQ did not differ between those with post-stroke depression (mean IQ 10.1.8 SD 9.8) vs those without (mean IQ 104 SD 10.1). There were no studies that examined childhood socioeconomic status and risk of post-stroke depression. CONCLUSIONS:Having less education is associated with an increased risk of post-stroke depressive symptoms but with large confidence intervals and heterogeneity. Future studies should explore the relationship between early and late life risk factors to improve risk identification and to target prevention and treatment strategies.

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Influence of young adult cognitive ability and additional education on later-life cognition.

Publications

Influence of young adult cognitive ability and additional education on later-life cognition.

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