ArticleProceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America2021
Educational attainment does not influence brain aging.
Article in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, 2021. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 59 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
59 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it.
- Education Levels and Poststroke Cognitive Trajectories.JAMA network open · 2025Pooled it
- Your brain doesn't look a day past 70! Cross-sectional associations with brain-predicted age in the cognitively-intact oldest-old.GeroScience · 2026Article
- Possible Volumetric Changes in the Hippocampus and Olfactory Bulbs After COVID-19: A Stereological MRI Study.Viruses · 2026Article
- Reserves, Injury Severity, and Outcomes in Traumatic Brain Injury: A CENTER-TBI Observational Study.Annals of clinical and translational neurology · 2026Article
- Cerebral amyloid associated with global cognition is differentially moderated by pulse pressure across education levels in The 90+ Study.Alzheimer's & dementia : the journal of the Alzheimer's Association · 2026Article
- Joint trajectories of brain atrophy, white matter hyperintensities and cognition quantify brain maintenance.Nature communications · 2026Article
- Brain maintenance biomarkers from structural and functional interactions in aging and neurodegeneration.Nature communications · 2026Article
- Stable episodic memory and high education do not influence the rate of Alzheimer's disease pathology as measured by plasma p-tau217.bioRxiv : the preprint server for biology · 2026Article
- Knowledge attitudes and practices regarding MRI safety among healthcare providers and patients/family members in China.Scientific reports · 2026Article
- Cortical volumetry and longitudinal cognitive changes in Parkinson's disease: insights from the COPPADIS cohort.Brain imaging and behavior · 2025Article
- Identifying lifestyle risk factors that discriminate memory trajectories: Differential findings across racial and ethnic groups in older adults.Neurobiology of aging · 2025Article
- Does education promote resilience and brain health in those with exceptional longevity? The LifeAfter90 study.Alzheimer's & dementia : the journal of the Alzheimer's Association · 2025Article
- Complementary MR measures of white matter and their relation to cardiovascular health and cognition.Scientific reports · 2025Article
- Article
- Higher Educational Attainment and Accelerated Tau Accumulation in Alzheimer Disease.JAMA neurology · 2025Article
- Diagnostic dynamic contrast-enhanced magnetic resonance imaging blood-brain barrier assessment combined with plasma biomarkers for mild cognitive impairment.World journal of psychiatry · 2025Article
- Harmonized prevalence estimates of dementia in Europe vary strongly with childhood education.Scientific reports · 2025Article
- Association Between Lifestyle at Different Life Periods and Brain Integrity in Older Adults.Neurology · 2025Observational
- Reevaluating the Role of Education in Cognitive Decline and Brain Aging: Insights from Large-Scale Longitudinal Cohorts across 33 Countries.Research square · 2025Article
- Reevaluating the Role of Education in Cognitive Decline and Brain Aging: Insights from Large-Scale Longitudinal Cohorts across 33 Countries.medRxiv : the preprint server for health sciences · 2025Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
24 authors.
Funding
Abstract
Education has been related to various advantageous lifetime outcomes. Here, using longitudinal structural MRI data (4,422 observations), we tested the influential hypothesis that higher education translates into slower rates of brain aging. Cross-sectionally, education was modestly associated with regional cortical volume. However, despite marked mean atrophy in the cortex and hippocampus, education did not influence rates of change. The results were replicated across two independent samples. Our findings challenge the view that higher education slows brain aging.
Indexed as
Identifiers
What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.