TY - JOUR
T1 - Schooling mediates brain reserve in Alzheimer's disease
T2 - Findings of fluoro-deoxy-glucose-positron emission tomography
AU - Perneczky, R.
AU - Drzezga, A.
AU - Diehl-Schmid, J.
AU - Schmid, G.
AU - Wohlschläger, A.
AU - Kars, S.
AU - Grimmer, T.
AU - Wagenpfeil, S.
AU - Monsch, A.
AU - Kurz, A.
PY - 2006/9
Y1 - 2006/9
N2 - Background: Functional imaging studies report that higher education is associated with more severe pathology in patients with Alzheimer's disease, controlling for disease severity. Therefore, schooling seems to provide brain reserve against neurodegeneration. Objective: To provide further evidence for brain reserve in a large sample, using a sensitive technique for the indirect assessment of brain abnormality (18F-fluoro-deoxy-glucose-positron emission tomography (FDG-PET)), a comprehensive measure of global cognitive impairment to control for disease severity (total score of the Consortium to Establish a Registry for Alzheimer's Disease Neuropsychobgical Battery) and an approach unbiased by predefined regions of interest for the statistical analysis (statistical parametric mapping (SPM)). Methods: 93 patients with mild Alzheimer's disease and 16 healthy controls underwent 18F-FDG-PET imaging of the brain. A linear regression analysis with education as independent and glucose utilisation as dependent variables, adjusted for global cognitive status and demographic variables, was conducted in SPM2. Results: The regression analysis showed a marked inverse association between years of schooling and glucose metabolism in the posterior temporo-occipital association cortex and the precuneus in the left hemisphere. Conclusions: In line with previous reports, the findings suggest that education is associated with brain reserve and that people with higher education can cope with brain damage for a longer time.
AB - Background: Functional imaging studies report that higher education is associated with more severe pathology in patients with Alzheimer's disease, controlling for disease severity. Therefore, schooling seems to provide brain reserve against neurodegeneration. Objective: To provide further evidence for brain reserve in a large sample, using a sensitive technique for the indirect assessment of brain abnormality (18F-fluoro-deoxy-glucose-positron emission tomography (FDG-PET)), a comprehensive measure of global cognitive impairment to control for disease severity (total score of the Consortium to Establish a Registry for Alzheimer's Disease Neuropsychobgical Battery) and an approach unbiased by predefined regions of interest for the statistical analysis (statistical parametric mapping (SPM)). Methods: 93 patients with mild Alzheimer's disease and 16 healthy controls underwent 18F-FDG-PET imaging of the brain. A linear regression analysis with education as independent and glucose utilisation as dependent variables, adjusted for global cognitive status and demographic variables, was conducted in SPM2. Results: The regression analysis showed a marked inverse association between years of schooling and glucose metabolism in the posterior temporo-occipital association cortex and the precuneus in the left hemisphere. Conclusions: In line with previous reports, the findings suggest that education is associated with brain reserve and that people with higher education can cope with brain damage for a longer time.
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=33747385700&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1136/jnnp.2006.094714
DO - 10.1136/jnnp.2006.094714
M3 - Article
C2 - 16709580
AN - SCOPUS:33747385700
SN - 0022-3050
VL - 77
SP - 1060
EP - 1063
JO - Journal of Neurology, Neurosurgery and Psychiatry
JF - Journal of Neurology, Neurosurgery and Psychiatry
IS - 9
ER -
