Mortby Moyra E, Burns Richard, Janke Andrew L, Sachdev Perminder S, Anstey Kaarin J, Cherbuin Nicolas
Centre for Research on Ageing, Health and Wellbeing, The Australian National University, 62A Eggleston Road, Canberra, ACT 0200, Australia.
Centre for Advanced Imaging, The University of Queensland, 57 Research Road, Brisbane, QLD 4072, Australia.
Biomed Res Int. 2014;2014:271487. doi: 10.1155/2014/271487. Epub 2014 Aug 12.
The protective effect of education on cognitive and brain health is well established. While the direct effects of individual cardiovascular disease (CVD) risk factors (i.e., hypertension, smoking, diabetes, and obesity) on cerebral structure have been investigated, little is understood about the possible interaction between the protective effect of education and the deleterious effects of CVD risk factors in predicting brain ageing and cognition. Using data from the PATH Through Life study (N = 266), we investigated the protective effect of education on cerebral structure and function and tested a possible mediating role of CVD risk factors. Higher education was associated with larger regional grey/white matter volumes in the prefrontal cortex in men only. The association between education and cognition was mediated by brain volumes but only for grey matter and only in relation to information processing speed. CVD risk factors did not mediate the association between regional volumes and cognition. This study provides additional evidence in support for a protective effect of education on cerebral structures and cognition. However, it does not provide support for a mediating role of CVD risk factors in these associations.
教育对认知和大脑健康的保护作用已得到充分证实。虽然个体心血管疾病（CVD）风险因素（即高血压、吸烟、糖尿病和肥胖）对脑结构的直接影响已被研究，但对于教育的保护作用与CVD风险因素在预测脑老化和认知方面的有害影响之间可能存在的相互作用，我们了解甚少。利用“贯穿一生之路”研究（N = 266）的数据，我们研究了教育对脑结构和功能的保护作用，并测试了CVD风险因素可能的中介作用。仅在男性中，高等教育与前额叶皮质中更大的区域灰质/白质体积相关。教育与认知之间的关联由脑容量介导，但仅针对灰质，且仅与信息处理速度有关。CVD风险因素并未介导区域体积与认知之间的关联。本研究为教育对脑结构和认知的保护作用提供了更多证据支持。然而，它并未支持CVD风险因素在这些关联中的中介作用。
