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P1‐244: EFFECT OF ILLITERACY ON COGNITION AND CEREBRAL MORPHOLOGY IN LATER LIFE
Author(s) -
Kwon Oh Dae,
Yoon Uicheul,
Na Duk L.
Publication year - 2014
Publication title -
alzheimer's and dementia
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 6.713
H-Index - 118
eISSN - 1552-5279
pISSN - 1552-5260
DOI - 10.1016/j.jalz.2014.05.483
Subject(s) - functional illiteracy , neuropsychology , psychology , cognition , developmental psychology , affect (linguistics) , literacy , brain size , cuneus , audiology , medicine , neuroscience , precuneus , magnetic resonance imaging , radiology , pedagogy , communication , political science , law
Education and nurture have been postulated to affect development of brain structures in the human.1 In 1960, Krech et al.2 found that an enriched environment during development potentiates the growth of total brain weight and cortical thickness. Cellular-level analyses of the cerebral cortices of cats showed that development in an enriched environment increases cortical synapse-to-neuron ratios,3 numerical densities of neurons, and sizes of neuronal nuclei.4,5 Whether the benefits of environmental enrichment during development have lifelong effects was an open question. In 1988, Katzman et al.6 introduced the cognitive reserve theory to explain the poor correlation between the neuropathological deficit and clinical severity of Alzheimer’s disease (AD). AD patients with higher premorbid educational levels showed more severe neuropathologic changes than those with lower premorbid educational levels, even though the two groups were able to maintain the same clinical status.7 In other words, greater brain damage was required to reduce educated patients to the same level of function as uneducated patients. This theory was supported by the finding that years of education influenced the relation between senile plaques and level of cognitive function.8 The increased prevalence of late-onset AD7-9 and rapid memory decline10,11 in people with less education are further Effect of Illiteracy on Cognition and Cerebral Morphology in Later Life