title: The whole-brain N-acetylaspartate correlates with education in normal adults.
abstract: N-acetylaspartate (NAA) is an index of neuronal integrity. We hypothesized that in healthy subjects its whole brain concentration (WBNAA) may be related to formal educational attainment, a common proxy for cognitive reserve. To test this hypothesis, 97 middle aged to elderly subjects (51-89 years old, 38% women) underwent brain magnetic resonance imaging and non-localizing proton spectroscopy. Their WBNAA was obtained by dividing their whole-head NAA amount by the brain volume. Intracranial volume and fractional brain volume, a metric of brain atrophy, were also determined. Each subject's educational attainment was the sum of his/her years of formal education. In the entire group higher education was associated with larger intracranial volume. The relationship between WBNAA and education was observed only in younger (51-70 years old) participants. In this group, education explained 21% of the variance in WBNAA. More WBNAA was related to more years of formal education in adults and younger elders. Prospective studies can determine whether this relationship reflects a true advantage from years of training versus innate characteristics predisposing a subject to higher achievements later in life. We propose that late-life WBNAA may be more affected by other factors acting at midlife and later.
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychiatry, New York University School of Medicine, New York, NY 10016, USA.
authors.forename: Lidia
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Glodzik
authors.forename: William E
authors.initials: WE
authors.lastname: Wu
authors.forename: James S
authors.initials: JS
authors.lastname: Babb
authors.forename: Lutz
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Achtnichts
authors.forename: Michael
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Amann
authors.forename: Marc
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Sollberger
authors.forename: Andreas U
authors.initials: AU
authors.lastname: Monsch
authors.forename: Achim
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Gass
authors.forename: Oded
authors.initials: O
authors.lastname: Gonen
mesh_terms: D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D001224:Aspartic Acid / Q000031:analogs & derivatives* / Q000378:metabolism; D001284:Atrophy / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging / Q000378:metabolism; D001921:Brain / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging / Q000378:metabolism*; D058245:Cognitive Reserve; D004522:Educational Status; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009929:Organ Size; D011877:Radionuclide Imaging
chemical_list: D001224:Aspartic Acid; C000179:N-acetylaspartate