I could be wrong, but I think it’s fair to say that the overwhelming majority of collegians aren’t going for the intellectual pursuit of it all. They’re going for one reason: to make money (and if we’re truly honest with ourselves, to party). And while this certainly isn’t the rule, generally, the more education someone has, the more money they tend to make once they enter the working world.

But the benefits of a greater education go above and beyond a strictly remunerative benefit. There’s a memory pay off as well, one that researchers believe to be effective in averting Alzheimer’s disease and the effects that precede it.

The study involved approximately 250 people. Seventy of the participants had mild levels of cognitive decline – which is to say a mildly diminished capacity to remember, reason and think clearly – versus about 150 who had no signs of diminished cognitive ability. After 14 months of following the participants, 21 of the mildly impaired group developed full-bore Alzheimer’s disease.

Prior to this, however, the researchers scanned the brains of all the participants to see the extent of the damage done to their brains. This was done through a measurement of their brain glucose metabolism. They also determined the years of schooling the participants took in college and what careers they wound up pursuing.

When comparing those who had equal amounts of cognitive damage - based on testing of memorization skills, other cognitive-based tasks and their brain glucose metabolism – they found that there was significantly more damage done to the brains of those with higher education levels and more involved career paths compared to those who had less involved career paths and took fewer years of schooling.

Now, on the surface, this sounds somewhat counterintuitive, if not troubling: that more education means more damage done to the brain. Why would anyone want to pursue lofty career goals if it means a steeper decline in cognitive abilities? It’s actually just the opposite. Because remember: the participants displayed the same level of impairment based on the memorization tests, yet the group with the higher education levels had more damage in their brains, based on the brain glucose metabolism scans. As the researchers of the study said, this suggests that there’s a protective quality to higher educational pursuits.

“Their brains are able to compensate for the damage and allow them to maintain functioning in spite of damage,” said the study’s lead author, Dr. Valentina Garibotto of Italy’s San Rafaelle University and Scientific Institute based in Milan.

The study is published in its entirety in the most recent edition of the American Academy of Neurology’s journal Neurology.

What researchers can’t be sure of at this point is whether it’s the pursuit of higher education that fights off Alzheimer’s effects or if it’s one’s genetic make-up that allows him or her to pursue higher educational pursuits. In other words, is it something that’s gifted or does practice make perfect?

Whichever it is, keeping the mind active – through exercise and educational pursuits – is a natural formula to combat the ill effects of age-related mental decline.