Education reduces the risk of Alzheimer's disease

The theory that education protects against Alzheimer's disease has been given further weight by new research. Alzheimer's disease is the leading cause of dementia. Building of 'plaques' and 'tangles' of misshapen proteins lead to the gradual death of brain cells. People affected by Alzheimer's experience memory and communication problems, disorientation, changes in behavior and progressive loss of independence.

The causes of Alzheimer's are largely unknown, and attempts to develop drug treatments to stop or reverse its effects have been disappointing. This has led to increasing interest in whether it is possible to reduce the number of cases of Alzheimer's disease by tackling common risk factors that can be modified.

Many studies have shown that the more years spent in full time education, the lower the risk of Alzheimer's. But it is difficult to unravel whether this is an effect of education improving brain function, or whether it's the case that people who are more educated tend to come from more wealthy backgrounds and therefore have a reduction in other risk factors that cause Alzheimer's disease.

Researchers examined looking DNA and compared genes associated with environmental risk factors – for example, genes linked to educational attainment or to smoking – and seeing which of these genes are also associated with Alzheimer's disease. If a gene is associated with both, then it provides strong evidence that this risk factor really does cause the disease. Researchers studied genetic variants that increase the risk of a variety of different environmental risk factors to see if these were more common in patients with Alzheimer's disease. They found the strongest association with genetic variants that predict higher educational attainment.

This provides further strong evidence that education is associated with a reduced risk of Alzheimer's disease, improving education could have a significant effect on reducing the number of people who suffer from this devastating disease. Exactly how education might reduce the risk of Alzheimer's is uncertain.

Previous studies have shown that the same amount of damage in the brain is associated with less severe and less frequent Alzheimer's in people who have received more education. One possible explanation is the idea of 'cognitive reserve' – the ability to recruit alternative brain networks or to use brain structures or networks not normally used to compensate for brain ageing. Evidence suggests that education helps improve brain wiring and networks and hence could increase this reserve.
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Development of brain networks

According to new research, the brains of smart people are wired differently, it allows them to absorb important facts quickly – while blocking out irrelevant information. Scientists used MRI scans on many volunteers to shed light on the nature of intelligence. They had already identified areas of the brain that control IQ and now they have uncovered the mechanism behind it. Researchers said it is possible for people to make themselves more intelligent with brain training games.

Researchers discovered that regions interact more closely in brainy individuals – while others disconnect themselves. In more intelligent people, certain regions are clearly more strongly involved in the exchange of information between different 'sub networks' of neurons. This enables important information to be communicated faster, and more efficiently. On the other hand, the researchers also identified areas that are disconnected, or 'de-coupled', from the rest of the brain in brighter people.
They believe this results in better protection against distracting and irrelevant material.

It is possible that due to their biological predispositions, some individuals develop brain networks that favour intelligent behaviours or more challenging cognitive tasks. However, the frequent use of the brain for cognitively challenging tasks may positively influence the development of brain networks. Smart thinking requires various portions of the brain working together like different parts of an engine.

Differences in academic success and professional careers are attributed to a considerable degree to cognitive abilities. Higher level thinking are rooted in the patterns of integration among parts of the brain called functional modules.It combined the brain scans from the participants with an analysis of mathematical graphs of their networks of neurons to come up with the first neurobiological basis of human intelligence.

 The two brain regions involved in the cognitive processing of 'task relevant' information - the anterior insula and the anterior cingulate cortex - are connected more efficiently to the rest of the brain. Another brain region, the junction area between temporal and parietal cortex that has been related to the shielding of thoughts against irrelevant information, is less strongly connected to the rest of the network.

The different topological embedding of these regions into the brain network could make it easier for smarter persons to differentiate between important and irrelevant information – which would be advantageous for many cognitive challenges. This is similar to a social network which consists of multiple sub-networks, for example: families, or circles of friends. Within these sub-networks or modules, the members of one family are more strongly interconnected than they are with people from other families or circles of friends.

Human brain is functionally organised in a very similar way. There are sub-networks of brain regions – modules that are more strongly interconnected among themselves while they have weaker connections to brain regions from other modules. Researchers examined whether the role of specific brain regions for communication within and among brain modules varies with individual differences in intelligence- whether a specific brain region supports the information exchange within their more than information exchange with other families, and how this relates to individual differences in intelligence.
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