Research has suggested that people who carry on their studies for longer are able to "compensate for the effects" of dementia.

The UK and Finnish study discovered that people who were more educated had the same chance of showing the hallmarks of dementia at death as people who did not carry on their studies.

However, they had less likelihood of displaying signs of the disease while they were alive, the study found.

The team looked at the brains of 872 people who were part of long-term ageing research.

Before the participants died they had filled in questionnaires about how much education they had received.

The study showed that for each year spent in education, people had a 11% reduced chance of developing the condition.

Dr Hannah Keage of the University of Cambridge, who co-authored the study, said: "Previous research has shown that there is not a one-to-one relationship between being diagnosed with dementia during life and changes seen in the brain at death."

"One person may show lots of pathology in their brain while another shows very little, yet both may have had dementia.Our study shows education in early life appears to enable some people to cope with a lot of changes in their brain before showing dementia symptoms", she explained.