Associations between education and brain structure at age 73 years, adjusted for age 11 IQ

Simon Cox, David Alexander Dickie, Stuart J Ritchie, Sherif Karama, Alison Pattie, Natalie Royle, Janie Corley, Benjamin Aribisala, Maria C Valdes Hernandez, Susana Muñoz Maniega, John Starr, Mark Bastin, Alan C. Evans, Joanna Wardlaw, Ian Deary

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

Abstract

Objective: To investigate how associations between education and brain structure in older age were affected by adjusting for intelligence (IQ), measured at age 11. Methods: We analysed years of full-time education and measures from an MRI brain scan at age 73 in 617 community-dwelling adults born in 1936. In addition to average and vertex-wise cortical thickness, we measured total brain atrophy and white matter tract fractional anisotropy. Associations between brain structure and education were tested, covarying for sex and vascular health; a second model also covaried for age 11 IQ. Results: The significant relationship between education and average cortical thickness (β = 0.124, p = 0.004) was reduced by 23% when including age 11 IQ (β = 0.096, p = 0.041). Initial associations between longer education and greater vertex-wise cortical thickness were significant in bilateral temporal, medial-frontal, parietal, sensory and motor cortices. Accounting for childhood intelligence reduced the number of significant vertices by >90%; only bilateral anterior temporal associations remained. Neither education nor age 11 IQ were significantly associated with total brain atrophy or tract-averaged fractional anisotropy. Conclusions: The association between years of education and brain structure ~60 years later was restricted to cortical thickness in this sample; however, the previously-reported associations between longer education and a thicker cortex are likely to be overestimates, both in terms of magnitude and distribution. This has implications for understanding, and possibly ameliorating, life-course brain health.
Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)1820-1826
Number of pages7
JournalNeurology
Volume87
Issue number17
Early online date24 Sept 2016
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - Oct 2016

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