Scientists in Rochester, Minnesota published a new study on February 24, 2016 where they examined 393 patients and found that those with a specific gene associated with Alzheimer’s showed less plaque deposits in their brain if they experienced high levels of cognitive activity throughout their life.
Healthy brain vs. Alzheimer’s brain
The 393 patients, ranging in age from 70-89 years, were not diagnosed with dementia and were taken from the Mayo Clinic Study of Aging longitudinal study. Out of the 393 participants, 340 of them were considered “normal,” while 53 of them had mild cognitive impairment. They were evaluated based on their physical and intellectual lifestyles as well as if they had the specific gene associated with Alzheimer’s.
The gene, formally known as APOE4, is found in about 20% of the population and is shown to increase one’s risk for developing Alzheimer’s disease if present. However, a person with the gene could go through life without developing Alzheimer’s at all.
The main finding of this study had to do with intellectual lifestyle, which was defined based on educational years and occupation. The researchers came up with a standardized education/occupation score for each participant, and also measured midlife cognitive ability based on a self-report questionnaire given to each individual.
It was found that there was no correlation between cognitive activity and the deposition of the protein plaques associated with Alzheimer’s disease if a person did not possess the APOE4 gene. However, in those individuals that did have the gene, there were lower levels of the plaques if that individual possessed high cognitive activity throughout their life.
The research team speculated that the relationship was only found in APOE4 carriers because those individuals are known to develop the protein plaques at an earlier age and at a faster rate than people without the gene.
In the long run, this finding is important to help limit the number of Alzheimer’s cases that occur each year by encouraging people to remain cognitively active throughout their life, especially if one has some sort of predisposition to the disease.
Vemuri, P. et al. 2016. Effect of intellectual enrichment on AD biomarker trajectories. Neurology. Published Ahead of Print.
