Lifelong learning has many benefits to our careers, but new research from the University of Zurich reminds us that these benefits extend into old age.
The study found that the brains of academics suffer from reduced levels of certain degenerative processes, with their brains seemingly better able to compensate with the various cognitive and neural limitations that are associated with aging.
Healthy aging
The researchers tracked a few hundred older people for seven years. None of the volunteers were suffering from any kind of dementia, with all found to have above-average intelligence and lead very active social lives.
Each of the volunteers was also examined neuroanatomically and neuropsychologically using MRI scans that were taken at regular intervals. Taken together, the researchers were able to determine that the academic background of participants seemed to have a positive impact on any age-related degeneration of the brain.
The findings emerged after the researchers analyzed lacunes and white matter hyperintensities in the brain. Any degenerative processes in the brain showed up as either white spots or black holes in the digital images.
While the exact reasons for the boost to our mental faculties as we age are not really known, the researchers hypothesize that it might be to do with cerebral infarcts, which while small and often unnoticed, can nonetheless reduce the blood flow in the brain and cause the loss of neural pathways. This in turn limits our cognitive performance, especially when the degeneration occurs in key areas of the brain.
Slowing the degeneration
Regardless of the reasons, however, the results showed that participants with an academic background showed a much lower increase in the typical signs of brain degeneration.
“In addition, academics also processed information faster and more accurately—for example, when matching letters, numbers, of patterns. The decline in their mental processing performance was lower overall,” the researchers explain.
The findings build on previous work highlighting the beneficial impact education appears to have on the brain as it ages. The researchers suggest that even though they weren’t able to find a causal link, the validity of their findings remains robust.
“We suspect that a high level of education leads to an increase in neural and cognitive networks over the course of people’s lives, and that they build up reserves, so to speak. In old age, their brains are then better able to compensate any impairments that occur,” they conclude.
