In 1972, a change in the law in the United Kingdom raised the number of mandatory school years from fifteen to sixteen, while all other circumstances remained constant. This created an interesting 'natural experiment', an event not under the control of researchers which divides people into an exposed and unexposed group. Data from approximately 30,000 people who attended school around that time, including MRI scans taken much later (46 years after), is available. This dataset is the world’s largest collection of brain imaging data.
The researchers examined the MRI scans for the structure of various brain regions, but they found no differences between those who attended school longer and those who did not. 'This surprised us', says Judd. 'We know that education is beneficial, and we had expected education to provide protection against brain aging. Aging shows up in all of our MRI measures, for instance we see a decline in total volume, surface area, cortical thickness, and worse water diffusion in the brain. However, the extra year of education appears to have no effect here.'
Read the full press release at Radboudumc.nl or download the publication at elifesciences.org.