Kim Regina Ey, Lee Minho, Kang Dong Woo, Wang Sheng-Min, Kim Donghyeon, Lim Hyun Kook
Research Institute, Neurophet Inc., Seoul, Republic of Korea; College of Medicine, Institute of Human Genomic Study, Korea University, Seoul, Republic of Korea; Department of Psychiatry, University of Iowa, Iowa, IA, United States of America.
Research Institute, Neurophet Inc., Seoul, Republic of Korea.
Psychiatry Res Neuroimaging. 2023 Apr;330:111600. doi: 10.1016/j.pscychresns.2023.111600. Epub 2023 Jan 24.
Brain structure and function change with age. Both educational attainments, a proxy for cognitive reserve, and intracranial volume (ICV), a proxy for brain reserve, could contribute to resilience against degenerative change in the brain with aging. Whether the effect of educational attainment on regional brain volume in adults is mediated by ICV is yet unclear. We aimed to investigate the direct and indirect effects (mediated through ICV) of education in early life on regional brain volume in later life.
We investigated the association between ICV and education level and regional brain volume in adults using magnetic resonance imaging scans of 1,731 individuals from multicenter studies. The mediation effect of ICV was analyzed to determine the association between educational attainment at an earlier age and regional brain volume in adults.
Our results showed that the effect of education on regional brain volume was significantly mediated by ICV in both men and women. The indirect (mediated via ICV) effect of education on brain volume amounted to 75% of the total effect in the hippocampus (p < 0.001) and 100% in the frontal and insular gray matter (p < 0.001).
Our study demonstrated that the association between educational attainment in early life and regional brain volume in later life was largely mediated by ICV. Attention should be given to the effect of educational attainment and ICV on regional brain size in adults as a measurable resilience effect in brain aging.
脑结构和功能会随年龄变化。教育程度作为认知储备的一个指标，以及颅内体积（ICV）作为脑储备的一个指标，都可能有助于抵御大脑随年龄增长而发生的退行性变化。教育程度对成人大脑区域体积的影响是否由ICV介导尚不清楚。我们旨在研究早年教育对晚年大脑区域体积的直接和间接影响（通过ICV介导）。
我们使用来自多中心研究的1731名个体的磁共振成像扫描，调查了ICV与教育水平和成人大脑区域体积之间的关联。分析ICV的中介效应，以确定早年教育程度与成人大脑区域体积之间的关联。
我们的结果表明，教育对大脑区域体积的影响在男性和女性中均由ICV显著介导。教育对脑体积的间接（通过ICV介导）效应在海马体中占总效应的75%（p < 0.001），在额叶和岛叶灰质中占100%（p < 0.001）。
我们的研究表明，早年教育程度与晚年大脑区域体积之间的关联在很大程度上由ICV介导。应关注教育程度和ICV对成人大脑区域大小的影响，将其作为脑老化中一种可测量的恢复力效应。
