Just like a well-used library helps keep a town’s elderly residents sharp, education can also have a positive effect on cognitive function as people age. In a recent study, researchers examined the connection between education, cognitive performance, and resting state functional connectivity (RSFC) in healthy older adults. They analyzed data from MRI scans of 197 individuals, comparing the cognitive and neural variables of younger adults aged 20-35 with older adults aged 55-80. The results showed that older adults with higher levels of education performed similarly to young adults in language and executive functions, but exhibited wider vocabularies compared to those with lower education. Additionally, the study found significant age- and education-related differences within three brain networks: the Visual-Medial, Dorsal Attentional, and Default Mode networks. The Default Mode network was particularly interesting, as it showed a relationship with memory performance in older adults with higher education. These findings suggest that education plays a crucial role in differentiating cognitive and neural profiles among healthy older adults. Furthermore, the study highlights the potential compensatory mechanisms of the Default Mode network for memory capacities in aging individuals with higher education.

ObjectivesIn healthy aging, the way people cope differently with cognitive and neural decline is influenced by exposure to cognitively enriching life-experiences. Education is one of them, so that in general, the higher the education, the better the expected cognitive performance in aging. At the neural level, it is not clear yet how education can differentiate resting state functional connectivity profiles and their cognitive underpinnings. Thus, with this study, we aimed to investigate whether the variable education allowed for a finer description of age-related differences in cognition and resting state FC.MethodsWe analyzed in 197 healthy individuals (137 young adults aged 20–35 and 60 older adults aged 55–80 from the publicly available LEMON database), a pool of cognitive and neural variables, derived from magnetic resonance imaging, in relation to education. Firstly, we assessed age-related differences, by comparing young and older adults. Then, we investigated the possible role of education in outlining such differences, by splitting the group of older adults based on their education.ResultsIn terms of cognitive performance, older adults with higher education and young adults were comparable in language and executive functions. Interestingly, they had a wider vocabulary compared to young adults and older adults with lower education. Concerning functional connectivity, the results showed significant age- and education-related differences within three networks: the Visual-Medial, the Dorsal Attentional, and the Default Mode network (DMN). For the DMN, we also found a relationship with memory performance, which strengthen the evidence that this network has a specific role in linking cognitive maintenance and FC at rest in healthy aging.DiscussionOur study revealed that education contributes to differentiating cognitive and neural profiles in healthy older adults. Also, the DMN could be a key network in this context, as it may reflect some compensatory mechanisms relative to memory capacities in older adults with higher education.

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