Abstract
BACKGROUND
Education influences brain health and dementia. However, its impact across regions, specifically Latin America (LA) and the United States (US), is unknown.
METHODS
A total of 1412 participants comprising controls, patients with Alzheimer’s disease (AD), and frontotemporal lobar degeneration (FTLD) from LA and the US were included. We studied the association of education with brain volume and functional connectivity while controlling for imaging quality and variability, age, sex, total intracranial volume (TIV), and recording type.
RESULTS
Education influenced brain measures, explaining 24%–98% of the geographical differences. The educational disparities between LA and the US were associated with gray matter volume and connectivity variations, especially in LA and AD patients. Education emerged as a critical factor in classifying aging and dementia across regions.
DISCUSSION
The results underscore the impact of education on brain structure and function in LA, highlighting the importance of incorporating educational factors into diagnosing, care, and prevention, and emphasizing the need for global diversity in research.
Highlights
Lower education was linked to reduced brain volume and connectivity in healthy controls (HCs), Alzheimer’s disease (AD), and frontotemporal lobar degeneration (FTLD).
Latin American cohorts have lower educational levels compared to the those in the United States.
Educational disparities majorly drive brain health differences between regions.
Educational differences were significant in both conditions, but more in AD than FTLD.
Education stands as a critical factor in classifying aging and dementia across regions.
If you do not see content above, kindly GO TO SOURCE.
Not all publishers encode content in a way that enables republishing at Neuro.vip.
This post is Copyright: Raul Gonzalez‐Gomez,
Agustina Legaz,
Sebastián Moguilner,
Josephine Cruzat,
Hernán Hernández,
Sandra Baez,
Rafael Cocchi,
Carlos Coronel‐Olivero,
Vicente Medel,
Enzo Tagliazuchi,
Joaquín Migeot,
Carolina Ochoa‐Rosales,
Marcelo Adrián Maito,
Pablo Reyes,
Hernando Santamaria Garcia,
Maria E. Godoy,
Shireen Javandel,
Adolfo M. García,
Diana L. Matallana,
José Alberto Avila‐Funes,
Andrea Slachevsky,
María I. Behrens,
Nilton Custodio,
Juan F. Cardona,
Ignacio L. Brusco,
Martín A. Bruno,
Ana L. Sosa Ortiz,
Stefanie D. Pina‐Escudero,
Leonel T. Takada,
Elisa de Paula França Resende,
Victor Valcour,
Katherine L. Possin,
Maira Okada de Oliveira,
Francisco Lopera,
Brian Lawlor,
Kun Hu,
Bruce Miller,
Jennifer S. Yokoyama,
Cecilia Gonzalez Campo,
Agustin Ibañez | August 13, 2024