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Hippocampal volume varies with educational attainment across the life-span

Socioeconomic disparities—and particularly differences in educational attainment—are associated with remarkable differences in cognition and behavior across the life-span. Decreased educational attainment has been linked to increased exposure to life stressors, which in turn have been associated wit...

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Autores principales: Noble, Kimberly G., Grieve, Stuart M., Korgaonkar, Mayuresh S., Engelhardt, Laura E., Griffith, Erica Y., Williams, Leanne M., Brickman, Adam M.
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Frontiers Media S.A. 2012
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3494123/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/23162453
http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fnhum.2012.00307
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author Noble, Kimberly G.
Grieve, Stuart M.
Korgaonkar, Mayuresh S.
Engelhardt, Laura E.
Griffith, Erica Y.
Williams, Leanne M.
Brickman, Adam M.
author_facet Noble, Kimberly G.
Grieve, Stuart M.
Korgaonkar, Mayuresh S.
Engelhardt, Laura E.
Griffith, Erica Y.
Williams, Leanne M.
Brickman, Adam M.
author_sort Noble, Kimberly G.
collection PubMed
description Socioeconomic disparities—and particularly differences in educational attainment—are associated with remarkable differences in cognition and behavior across the life-span. Decreased educational attainment has been linked to increased exposure to life stressors, which in turn have been associated with structural differences in the hippocampus and the amygdala. However, the degree to which educational attainment is directly associated with anatomical differences in these structures remains unclear. Recent studies in children have found socioeconomic differences in regional brain volume in the hippocampus and amygdala across childhood and adolescence. Here we expand on this work, by investigating whether disparities in hippocampal and amygdala volume persist across the life-span. In a sample of 275 individuals from the BRAINnet Foundation database ranging in age from 17 to 87, we found that socioeconomic status (SES), as operationalized by years of educational attainment, moderates the effect of age on hippocampal volume. Specifically, hippocampal volume tended to markedly decrease with age among less educated individuals, whereas age-related reductions in hippocampal volume were less pronounced among more highly educated individuals. No such effects were found for amygdala volume. Possible mechanisms by which education may buffer age-related effects on hippocampal volume are discussed.
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spelling pubmed-34941232012-11-16 Hippocampal volume varies with educational attainment across the life-span Noble, Kimberly G. Grieve, Stuart M. Korgaonkar, Mayuresh S. Engelhardt, Laura E. Griffith, Erica Y. Williams, Leanne M. Brickman, Adam M. Front Hum Neurosci Neuroscience Socioeconomic disparities—and particularly differences in educational attainment—are associated with remarkable differences in cognition and behavior across the life-span. Decreased educational attainment has been linked to increased exposure to life stressors, which in turn have been associated with structural differences in the hippocampus and the amygdala. However, the degree to which educational attainment is directly associated with anatomical differences in these structures remains unclear. Recent studies in children have found socioeconomic differences in regional brain volume in the hippocampus and amygdala across childhood and adolescence. Here we expand on this work, by investigating whether disparities in hippocampal and amygdala volume persist across the life-span. In a sample of 275 individuals from the BRAINnet Foundation database ranging in age from 17 to 87, we found that socioeconomic status (SES), as operationalized by years of educational attainment, moderates the effect of age on hippocampal volume. Specifically, hippocampal volume tended to markedly decrease with age among less educated individuals, whereas age-related reductions in hippocampal volume were less pronounced among more highly educated individuals. No such effects were found for amygdala volume. Possible mechanisms by which education may buffer age-related effects on hippocampal volume are discussed. Frontiers Media S.A. 2012-11-09 /pmc/articles/PMC3494123/ /pubmed/23162453 http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fnhum.2012.00307 Text en Copyright © 2012 Noble, Grieve, Korgaonkar, Engelhardt, Griffith, Williams and Brickman. http://www.frontiersin.org/licenseagreement This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits use, distribution and reproduction in other forums, provided the original authors and source are credited and subject to any copyright notices concerning any third-party graphics etc.
spellingShingle Neuroscience
Noble, Kimberly G.
Grieve, Stuart M.
Korgaonkar, Mayuresh S.
Engelhardt, Laura E.
Griffith, Erica Y.
Williams, Leanne M.
Brickman, Adam M.
Hippocampal volume varies with educational attainment across the life-span
title Hippocampal volume varies with educational attainment across the life-span
title_full Hippocampal volume varies with educational attainment across the life-span
title_fullStr Hippocampal volume varies with educational attainment across the life-span
title_full_unstemmed Hippocampal volume varies with educational attainment across the life-span
title_short Hippocampal volume varies with educational attainment across the life-span
title_sort hippocampal volume varies with educational attainment across the life-span
topic Neuroscience
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3494123/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/23162453
http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fnhum.2012.00307
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