An extra year of school education does not protect against brain aging

It is known that education has multiple benefits. People who spend more time in school tend to be healthier, more intelligent, and have higher jobs and incomes than those with less education.

However, until now it was unknown whether prolonged education causes long-term changes in brain structure and whether it protects against brain aging.

Studying this topic is difficult, since along with education, many other factors influence brain structure, such as the environment in which a person grows up, genetic traits, and environmental pollution.

However, researchers Rogier Kievit, leader of the Cognitive Dynamics of the Life Course laboratory, and Nicholas Judd, both from the Radboud University Medical Center and the Donders Institute, found a unique opportunity to precisely analyze the effects of an extra year of education .

In 1972, a change in UK legislation increased compulsory schooling from 15 to 16 yearswhile other circumstances remained constant. Currently in Spain education is mandatory from 6 to 16 years old. To this we would have to add early childhood education, 3 more years, and high school, another two. In total there are 15 if all the cycles are completed.

natural experiment

This change offered the possibility of having the opportunity to be before a «natural experiment»; That is, a situation beyond the control of the researchers that divides people into an exposed group (those who attended school one more year) and another non-exposed group.

Currently, there is data on around 30,000 people who attended school in that period, including magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) taken many years later, 46 years later. This data set is the largest collection of brain images in the world.

The researchers analyzed the images of MRI to observe the structure of various brain regions, but they found no differences between those who attended school an extra year and those who did not.

“This surprised us,” says Judd. We know that education is beneficial, and we hoped it would provide some protection against brain aging. Aging is reflected in all our measurements obtained thanks to magnetic resonance images: we observe a decrease in the total volume, in the surface area, in the cortical thicknessand worse diffusion of water in the brain. However, the additional year of education does not appear to have any effect on these aspects.

The researchers think it is possible that the brain may have changed just after the extra year in the education system, but this was not measured at the time. «Perhaps education temporarily increases brain size, but it returns to normal later – explains Kievit -. “It could be similar to exercise: if you train intensely for a year at 16, you will see a positive effect on your muscles, but 50 years later, that effect is no longer there.”

It is also plausible that the extra education only produces microscopic changes in the brain, which are not visible with MRI scans.

Both in this study and in other smaller studies, links have been observed between greater education and brain benefits. For example, those who receive More education tends to have stronger cognitive skills, better health, and greater job opportunities..

However, these benefits are not reflected in the brain structure visible on an MRI.

Kievit states: “Our study shows that one should be cautious in assigning causality when only a correlation is observed. “Although we also see correlations between education and the brain, we find no evidence of changes in brain structure.”