Why do the Educated Lose Memory Faster?

[flashl]

educated people simply unconsciously hide their cognitive decline better

Having more education may delay the onset of dementia, but once it comes, it appears it might come on more fiercely. A new study shows that those with more education lose their memory faster than those with less education.

The study found for each additional year of formal education, the rapid accelerated memory decline associated with oncoming dementia was delayed by approximately two and one half months.

However, once that accelerated decline commenced, the people with more education saw their rate of cognitive decline accelerate 4 percent faster for each additional year of education.

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[mmonk]

1. I don't remember.

[Liberal In Texas]

2. I can't remember.

But there was something...

[EFerrari]

3. What?

[Kingofalldems]

4. They have too much info in their head

Brain becomes overloaded and shuts down?

[stubtoe]

30. Neurons get re-formatted and overwritten too much!

n/t

[Raejeanowl]

5. More Brain Cells With More Interconnections? n/t

[MADem]

6. Huh...? I forget... nt

[bonito]

7. So you've been reading my post

:freak:

[flashl]

8. If you can remember tomorrow, I thought it was interesting. n /t

[Kutjara]

9. Perhaps information is packed more densely the more you learn.

Sort of like how computer disks can use compression to store more data in the same space. If the brain uses a data compression scheme, then "data rich" brains will contain more info per unit volume than "data poor" brains. So, for each unit volume of brain function lost, a proportionately greater amount of information would be lost.

[daninthemoon]

10. Maybe because the more you know, especially these days,

the more you desperatley need to forget to try to hold on to sanity.

[Double T]

11. Answer: Used up more memory.

[liberalhistorian]

12. Wow, this is exactly what is happening with my stepdad!

He has an MA in English, was a high school and college teacher, extremely bright with a love of continued learning and reading and poetry-writing. And yet, Alzheimer's struck early, in his late fifties, and he had to retire from teaching eight years earlier than normal. He is now sixty-four and the rapid, accelerated decline has been nothing short of stunning and horrifying. He cannot even care for his basic needs now and is just a month or so away from being placed in institutional care because my mother just cannot continue to care for him at home anymore, it's too much.

We may be spared the final, truly ugly stages, though, as he was just diagnosed with advanced prostate cancer that may have metastasized (we'll find out Monday), and mom, with our agreement, has decided on no treatment for him other than palliative care. This appears to be standard with dementia patients, anyway, most treatments are too difficult for them to endure.

I really find this interesting and am wondering why it's so. Too much info on the hard drive, aka the brain, maybe, and it finally gets too much for it to handle???

[Zookeeper]

37. I'm so sorry, Liberalhistorian...

my best wishes to you and your family.

:hug:

[silverojo]

13. Because college students fry their brains with drugs and booze

It's like Dumbya...there's only so long you can shrivel your brain up to nothing, before its functioning begins to decline dramatically.

[burrowowl]

14. Because educated use their memory less

and rely on processes.
Use both and you should be good.

[Beerboy]

15. Interesting post,

bookmarked for later.

[Stargazer99]

16. Must be what is wrong with the Bush administration

[porphyrian]

17. I think it's because the memory fairies don't like how old people smell. -n/t

[DaveJ]

18. It's one of those common sense studies

4% faster loss of memories is not a lot. I suspect that educated people value memories less than skill sets. I can't imagine gong through life without paying attention to my skills, but if I had to, I would think that if I were skill-less, then yes, my memory of lifetime events would be better. Everyone has a contribution to make.

[catnhatnh]

19. This Just got my Dad....

And I believe it true. Dad was a diesel mechanic and yet well read-how many kids of diesel mechanics were taught to love the "Rubiyaat" and Scotch poetry in dialect? And also how to weld, and how to treat women, and how to turn a wrench, and garden and so much more....I truly believe he knew much earlier than we that he was both declining and that the decline was accelerating. And I believe he tried with all his might to hide this sadness from his family. It kind of worked-it took us several years longer to realize quite how severe the damage was, and then the decline was shockingly rapid. In his own way, I guess he won, but wonder about the strength of will to keep up the charade and what it cost him...

[Zookeeper]

38. .....

He sounds like a wonderful dad.

I'm so sorry for your loss, catnhatnh.

[flashl]

52. Thank for sharing.

If he is any like some of the senior males in my family, they are proud and will have it their way.

[TahitiNut]

20. I find that if I plug my ears it doesn't leak out as fast.

:dunce:

[EFerrari]

21. Finally, a tip I can use.

:rofl:

[TahitiNut]

28. Huh? Did you say something?

:dunce:

:rofl:

[EFerrari]

36. I don't remember.

:shrug:

[TahitiNut]

47. !

:rofl: :rofl:

[Hardrada]

22. I heard that when I was in Junior High in the late Fifties. The more

you study the more you learn. The more you learn the more you forget. The more you forget the less you know. So WHY STUDY?? (And I didn't forget that!)

[Sequoia]

45. I heard that in the 60's.

[Didereaux]

23. just like fire...more fuel =faster and hotter burn n/t

[flashl]

24. The last memory I had about the brain ...

said something to the effect, we used only 10%, so it seems that we still have a lot of real estate left to use.

And, I vaguely remember that the man who used the most brain real estate, Einstien, brain is somewhere in the midwest in a jar under a desk.

[shadowknows69]

27. Mine goes to eleven.

I wish, 8-9% tops. I blame the beer.

[The2ndWheel]

33. That one hit me in the right place

:spray:

It's one smarter.

[EFerrari]

31. I think that turned out not to be true but I don't remember now.

:dunce:

[flashl]

34. Your right.

The Ten-Percent Myth

A recent column in New Scientist magazine also suggested various roots <10% theory>, including Albert Einstein and Dale Carnegie (Brain Drain 1999).

[EFerrari]

35. See? Those ear plugs work!

:)

[flashl]

43. On my way to the store. n/t

[SmokingJacket]

25. 4 percent... is that statistically significant?

Especially when you're comparing a rate of decline, which has to be hard to measure meaningfully. :shrug:

[shadowknows69]

26. Stress on the hard drive

its fast and easy to have only 5% of your drive filled. You get too much learnin in ya and the old think box just breaks down. Thats why eye nevur gott me mucsh edumacation whin eye wennt to skool.

[madokie]

29. I should be safe then

[stirlingsliver]

32. We Don't

The study is bogus.

[FloridaJudy]

39. If I'm going to lose it

I'd rather lose it fast. A slow descent into dementia would be the worst: I've seen it happen.

I'd prefer to go BLAM. One day you're okay, the next you're demented and the next you're dead. Much easier on everybody all around.

[Sequoia]

40. Does reading a lot of books count as higher learning?

I knew a gal who bragged about her history degree but I knew more than she did due to book learnin'.

[flashl]

41. Here goes, the higher learning nazi will flame me.

"Higher learning" creates anxiety for me while reading provides hours of satisfaction and learning.

[EFerrari]

44. That's right! I almost posted the same thing.

Classes really cut into reading time! :toast:

[Sequoia]

49. That's why I couldn't hack college.

My concentration on listening to the professor drone on and on put me to sleep or I'd find my mind thinking about other things. Considering how college graduates can't even find a decent job these days...!

[EFerrari]

51. I had high tolerance for drone but my two kids didn't.

They're fine and at least as read up as I am if not more and better. :)

[book_worm]

48. Remember Lincoln was self taught and read a great deal to educate himself

[annabanana]

42. "The more you study the more you know. . .. . . . ."

etc

[Alcibiades]

46. It's probably something environmental

One problem with this sort of thing is that we might expect something like a 4% variation between two groups simply by random chance. Another, probably known better to social scientists than medical doctors (or maybe not) is that education (and social class) correlated with EVERYTHING.

If the difference is real and not simply the result of randomness, then I seriously doubt it's the result of learning itself. My wife has a background in neuroscience, and I've read a lot of her textbooks along the way. Most of what we know about the brain says that it really is like a muscle--the more you use it, the stronger it gets. Hence the popularity of those brain exercise video games (the need for which would be vitiated by simply throwing away the video game and reading books instead).

A lot of the sharpest elderly people I know have PhDs, or are otherwise mentally active. On the other hand, I know some people who don't have much in the way of an intellectual life who nonetheless don't undergo a cognitive decline late in life. I'm sure we all know people who fall into each of the following groups: educated people who develop dementia and those who don't, "uneducated" (as if there were such a thing) people who develop dementia and those who don't. The processes at work in the disorders causing dementia are not nearly as well understood as one would hope.

I do like the post about drinking and college. We do know there's a lot of binge drinking in college, some of which will have long-term health effects. Just yesterday, there was a story on how college-age binge drinking increases something called C-reactive protein on a long-term basis, a risk factor in heart disease. Heavy drinking in college may have some effect on the brain. God knows I practically pickled mine.

Of course, there is research indicating that, whatever the risks, college binge drinking is nonetheless totally fucking awesome.

http://www.theonion.com/content/node/29565

[SoCalDem]

50. and maybe the dim-bulbs have been dim so long that no one notices

that they are getting dimmer:shrug:
The ones that shine the brightest are more noticed when they dim :)

[Alcibiades]

53. I had that thought as well

But omitted it simply because my maternal grandparents, two of the smartest, most well-read people I know, have only a high school-level education (both are in their mid-eighties and doing quite well cognitively, though no one reaches that age without some serious health problems). And, oh yeah, I didn't want to get flamed.

[SoCalDem]

54. I'm flame-proof..

People flame me, I refuse to engage them, they get tired of doing it, and a few days later I can't remember who flamed me, and probably ooh and ahh over their kittie pictures :)


Uh-0h....