College degree won't prevent age-linked brain decline, study says
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That college degree may be useful in many ways, but new research suggests it probably won't keep your brain from shrinking with age.
Over the years, a number of studies have suggested that education might buffer people against age-related declines in memory and thinking.
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But those findings did not prove a cause-and-effect relationship.
In the new study, researchers asked whether people's education levels were related to an objective marker of brain aging: atrophy, or thinning, of the brain tissue.
Overall, the study found, there was no strong connection.
Based on MRI brain scans of over 2,000 Europeans, higher education level was only "modestly" associated with greater brain tissue volume.