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Updated: Nov 8, 2025

Abbiategrasso Brain Bank Protocol for Collecting, Processing and Characterizing Aging Brains
Published on: June 3, 2020
Educational attainment does not influence brain aging
Lars Nyberg1,2,3,4, Fredrik Magnussen4, Anders Lundquist3
1Department of Radiation Sciences, Radiology, Umeå University, 901 87 Umeå, Sweden; lars.nyberg@umu.se a.m.fjell@psykologi.uio.no.
None:
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.
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