title: Can education rescue genetic liability for cognitive decline?
abstract: Although there is a vast literature linking education and later health outcomes, the mechanisms underlying these associations are relatively unknown. In the spirit of some medical literature that leverages developmental abnormalities to understand mechanisms of normative functioning, we explore the ability of higher educational attainments to "rescue" biological/genetic liabilities in brain function through inheritance of a variant of the APOE gene shown to lead to cognitive decline, dementia, and Alzheimer's disease in old age. Deploying a between-sibling design that allows quasi-experimental variation in genotype and educational attainment within a standard gene-environment interaction framework, we show evidence that the genetic effects of the "risky" APOE variant on old-age cognitive decline are absent in individuals who complete college (vs. high school graduates). Auxiliary analyses suggest that the likely mechanisms of education are most consistent through changing brain processes (i.e., "how we think") and potentially building cognitive reserves, rather than alleviating old age cognitive decline through the channels of higher socioeconomic status and resources over the life course.
authors: University of Wisconsin-Madison, 1180 Observatory Drive, Madison, WI 53706, USA; School of Social Sciences, Humanities, and Arts, University of California-Merced, USA. Electronic address: cjcook@ssc.wisc.edu.
authors: C Justin
authors: CJ
authors: Cook
authors: University of Wisconsin-Madison, 1180 Observatory Drive, Madison, WI 53706, USA. Electronic address: jmfletcher@wisc.edu.
authors: Jason M
authors: JM
authors: Fletcher
mesh_terms: D000375:Aging; D000544:Alzheimer Disease / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000235:genetics; D053327:Apolipoprotein E4 / Q000235:genetics; D003072:Cognition Disorders / Q000453:epidemiology* / Q000235:genetics*; D003704:Dementia / Q000453:epidemiology* / Q000235:genetics*; D004522:Educational Status; D005260:Female; D059647:Gene-Environment Interaction; D020022:Genetic Predisposition to Disease; D005838:Genotype; D054624:Health Status Disparities; D006801:Humans; D008137:Longitudinal Studies; D008297:Male; D012307:Risk Factors; D064890:Social Determinants of Health; D012959:Socioeconomic Factors
chemical_list: D053327:Apolipoprotein E4
keywords: Cognitive decline; Education; Gene–environment interaction; Rescuing