'Our study is the first to show that formal education also modifies the association between brain damage and clinical symptoms of dementia in Alzheimer's disease if brain damage is defined as volume loss on magnetic resonance imaging scans,' said Perneczky in a Klinikum release.

'The relevance of our findings is strengthened by the large sample including 270 patients with Alzheimer's disease. Furthermore, factors with a potential negative influence on cognition and brain volume loss, such as genetic characteristics, age, gender, and brain infarction were also considered,' he said.

These research results show for the first time that the modifying effect of formal education is robust enough to reduce the negative effects of structural brain damage on cognitive function.

The results are published in the current issue of the Journal of Alzheimer's Disease.