According to ScienceDaily’s article “Why More Education Lowers Dementia Risk,” “studies on dementia have consistently showed that the more time you spend in education, the lower your risk of dementia. For each additional year of education there is an 11% decrease in risk of developing dementia, this study reports.” But why? Apparently an increased exposure to education enables us to better compensate for changes in our brains before we show dementia symptoms, according to a recent study.
Read the research article online: Education, the brain and dementia: Neuroprotection or compensation? (Brain, 2010, vol.133, pp.2210-2216, doi:10.1093/brain/awq185).
In addition to the article in Brain, Andersen Library has additional resources on the various forms of dementia and cognitive reserves. Search the HALCAt online catalog to find books such as The other brain: From dementia to schizophrenia, how new discoveries about the brain are revolutionizing medicine and science (2nd-floor New Book Island, QP376 .F46 2010).
Search article databases to find articles such as “On whether the environmental enrichment may provide cognitive and brain reserves” (Brain Research Reviews, 2009, vol.61:no.2, pp.221-239).
Please ask a librarian for assistance with finding materials.
