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Children who grow up in homes filled with books tend to have less cognitive decline when they reach old age, even when taking factors such as wealth and education into account. The finding suggests that early cognitive enrichment has long-lasting protective effects on the brain.

Previous studies have found that children with large home libraries are more likely to do well at school and in their later careers. at Ben-Gurion University of the Negev in Israel and her colleagues wondered whether the benefits of early book exposure extend into old age.

They analysed data from more than 8000 men and women aged 65 and older without Alzheimer鈥檚 disease in 16 European countries, who had taken memory tests in 2011 and 2013 as part of the Survey of Health, Ageing and Retirement in Europe. The tests included trying to memorise lists of words and naming as many animals as possible in 1 minute.

Participants were asked to recall roughly how many books their family homes contained when they were children: no books, one shelf (about 25 books), one bookcase (about 100 books), two bookcases or more.

Those who grew up with larger book collections performed better in all memory tests. They also showed slower cognitive decline, with a smaller dip in their test scores between 2011 and 2013.

This may be because their early book exposure encouraged them to read more, which in turn boosted their 鈥渃ognitive reserve鈥�, says Cohn-Schwartz. Intellectually stimulating activities like reading are known to create extra connections in the brain that buffer it against degenerative processes like those seen in Alzheimer鈥檚 disease.

鈥淚t鈥檚 highly likely they built that buffer in the early stages of their childhood that has lasted them the distance,鈥� says Ralph Martins at Edith Cowan University in Perth, Australia.

The findings persisted when the researchers used statistical techniques to adjust for the participants鈥� wealth, education, physical health and other factors. This suggests that large home libraries aren鈥檛 just a marker of having more money, which could protect the brain in a variety of ways, such as through better nutrition, says Cohn-Schwartz.

However, Martins notes that children who grow up in book-oriented homes are probably also encouraged to take up other stimulating activities, like sport and playing musical instruments, which could also boost their cognitive reserves. 鈥淚 suspect it鈥檚 not just the books,鈥� he says.

A recent asked 800 older people how cognitively enriching their childhoods were overall, including whether they had newspaper subscriptions, encyclopaedias or atlases at home, how often they read books and if they learned foreign languages. Brain autopsies after they died showed that those who grew up in more enriching environments had fewer signs of Alzheimer鈥檚 disease.

鈥淭he bottom line is that an enriched childhood is going to be beneficial, but it will probably be a combination of factors,鈥� says Martins.