学进去

Education appears to protect older adults especially women, against memory loss, according to a study by researchers Georgetown University Medical Centre.

The study tested declarative memory (陈述性记忆) in 704 older adults (58-98 years of age). Declarative memory refers to our ability to remember events, facts and words, such as where you put your keys or the name of that new neighbour. The researchers found that their memory performance became worse with aging. However, more years of early-life education countered these losses, especially in women.

For example, the declarative memory abilities of an 80-year-old woman with a bachelor’s degree (学士学位) would be as good as those of a 60-year-old woman with a high school education. So, four extra years of education make up for the memory losses from 20 years of aging.

“Simply said, learning brings about learning,” says the study’s senior researcher, Michael Ullman. “Since learning new information in declarative memory is easier if it is connected with knowledge we already have, more knowledge from more education should result in better memory abilities, even years later.” adds the study’s lead author, Jana Reifegerste.

“Evidence suggests that girls often have better declarative memory than boys, so education may lead to greater knowledge gains in girls,” says Ullman. “Education may bring advantages to memory abilities in women, even years later in old age.”

“These findings may be important, especially considering the rapidly aging population,” Reifegerste says. “The results argue for further efforts to increase chances of receiving education.”

“Education has also been found to slow down the beginning of Alzheimer’s disease,” Ullman says. “We believe that our findings may explain why this happens.”