Engaging in leisure activities promotes mental health. The effect is likely associated with resilience as the broaden‐and‐build theory suggests positive emotions elicited from leisure increase mental resources for stress coping. The present research examined whether participating in different leisure activities at a given time increases the level of resilience, which in turn reduces psychological problems. It also investigated the changes in people's leisure activities due to the COVID‐19 outbreak and the impact of these changes on their mental health. Japanese participants ( N = 300) responded to two online surveys conducted before (January 2020) and after the outbreak (February 2021). They selected the leisure activities they had engaged in from 100 choices and reported their levels of resilience and depressive symptoms. An analysis of covariates revealed that the total number of selected activities significantly reduced in the second survey, but the levels of resilience and depressive symptoms remained constant. Regression analysis showed that the reduction in leisure activities did not predict depressive symptoms. However, structural equation modeling established that the relationship between leisure and depression was mediated by resilience, supporting the initial hypothesis. Importantly, this relationship slightly differed by age group, likely because popular activities and their psychological impacts vary depending on age.

Cognitive reserve is the capacity to cope with cognitive decline due to brain damage caused by neurological diseases. Premorbid IQ has been investigated as a proxy for cognitive reserve. To date, no study has focused on the effects of premorbid IQ in patients with brain tumors, considering the damage to white matter tracts. We investigated whether a higher premorbid IQ has a beneficial impact on postoperative verbal short-term memory and functional outcomes in patients with brain tumors. A total of 65 patients with brain tumors (35 right and 30 left hemisphere lesions) and 65 healthy subjects participated in the study. We used multiple regression analysis to examine whether white matter tract damage and premorbid IQ affect postoperative verbal short-term memory, and the interaction effects of premorbid IQ with damage to white matter tract on postoperative verbal short-term memory. Path analysis was used to investigate the relationship between damage to the white matter tract and premorbid IQ on postoperative functional ability. Our results showed that damage to the left arcuate fasciculus affected postoperative functional ability through verbal short-term memory, working memory, and global cognition in patients with left hemisphere lesions. In the right hemisphere lesion group, high premorbid IQ had a positive effect on functional ability by mediating verbal short-term memory, verbal working memory, and global cognition. We found that damage to the eloquent pathway affected postoperative verbal short-term memory regardless of the premorbid IQ level. However, a higher premorbid IQ was associated with better postoperative verbal short-term memory and functional outcomes when the brain lesions were not located in a crucial pathway. Our findings suggest that premorbid IQ and damage to the white matter tracts should be considered predictors of postoperative functional outcomes.

Cognitive reserve (CR) is the capacity to cope with cognitive impairments due to brain damage by neurological disease. CR is increased by intellectually enriching activities, such as education, occupation, and leisure. After brain tumor resection, patients show working memory impairment because of damage to fronto-parietal networks, such as the superior longitudinal fascicle (SLF). To date, whether occupational experience represented as CR impacts postoperative working memory impairment in patients with frontal lobe tumors remains unknown. We hypothesized that occupational experience predicted postoperative working memory and that higher damage in the SLF was associated with poorer working memory. We enrolled 27 patients who had undergone tumor resection. Patient's occupational experience was estimated using an occupational complexity index based on a dictionary of occupational titles. Working memory was measured using verbal and spatial working memory tasks. Our results showed that patients who had engaged in more complex occupations showed higher performance of postoperative working memory, which supported the previous CR hypothesis. In conclusion, CR has protective effects against working memory impairment in patients with frontal lobe tumors. CR measures, such as occupational experience, will help more accurately predict the severity of working memory deficits and the likelihood of recovery in the postoperative period.

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