The effect of education level on functional brain organization in patients with chronic cerebral ischemia

The level of education is an important factor that prevents cognitive decline in normal and pathological aging, including in neurodegenerative and vascular diseases.

This study aimed to examine cerebral connectivity in patients with tertiary and secondary education suffering from chronic cerebral ischemia.

Materials and methods. We examined 54 patients (mean age 64.4 years) with chronic cerebrovascular disease who had completed either tertiary or secondary education. The Luria test was used to assess short-term memory, while the connectome organization was studied using resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging.

Results. On average, patients with tertiary education recalled 35.0 ± 1.1 words out of a possible 50, while patients with secondary education only recalled 31.1 ± 1.2 words (p = 0.018). Patients with higher education had a higher number of interhemispheric connections in the connectome than the group without higher education. In patients without tertiary education, predominate the intrahemispheric connections in the right hemisphere. We hypothesize that this connectome organization provides a cognitive advantage in people with higher education, compared to patients without higher education.