Educated Brains Recover Better

People who have been educated for longer periods of time appear to be more resistant to the adverse effects of a brain injury, compared to the uneducated, according to a recent study.

The study was published in Neurology, the official peer-reviewed journal of the American Academy of Neurology (AAN), and details how researchers from Johns Hopkins School of Medicine determined that people with more educations better recover from traumatic brain injury (TBI).

Most TBIs consist of a blow or jolt to the head that results in a temporary inference of normal brain function including but not limited to blacking out. Concussions are the most commonly discussed TBIs, and while seemingly harmless, may result in long-term changes to a person's brain structure and even psyche.

In-fact, a study recently published in PLOS One detailed how teens who have experience TBI early in life are more likely to developed suicidal tendencies and/or make poor decisions regarding criminal activity and social interaction.

Now, Johns Hopkins researchers have found that education may help mitigate how severely TBIs negatively impact the brain in the long run.

According to an AAN press release, the study helps back a long-held hypothesis called the "cognitive reserve theory." Supporters of the theory believe that people with more education have spent more time exercising their brain, and have developed a larger cognitive reserve that can help the brain function properly even in light of permanent structural changes.

According to the study, researchers assessed 769 people 23 years old and older who had experienced a TBI. 24 percent of this group never finished high school, while 51 percent had a high-school diploma (12 to 15 years of education). The last 25 percent had gained at least an undergraduate degree, meaning they had gained at least 16 years of education.

Interestingly, in a follow-up of at least one year after each participant's initial TBI, researchers found that only 10 percent of the high school drop-outs were deemed free to disability after their TBI, while 31 percent of the high-school graduates made a full recovery. Of the participants with a college degree, 39 percent also made full recoveries, showing no sign of disability.

According to the researchers, this study, which established an association between education and injury resilience is just the first step in understanding how and why this phenomenon occurs.

"Exploring these relationships will hopefully help us to identify ways to help people recover better from traumatic brain injury," study author Eric B. Schneider, PhD said in an AAN press release.

The study was published in Neurology on April 23.