Brain reserve, cognitive reserve, compensation, and maintenance: operationalization, validity, and mechanisms of cognitive resilience

Abstract

Significant individual differences in the trajectories of cognitive aging and in age-related changes of brain structure and function have been reported in the past half-century. In some individuals, significant pathological changes in the brain are observed in conjunction with relatively well-preserved cognitive performance. Multiple constructs have been invoked to explain this paradox of resilience, including brain reserve, cognitive reserve, brain maintenance, and compensation. The aim of this session of the Cognitive Aging Summit III was to examine the overlap and distinctions in definitions and measurement of these constructs, to discuss their neural and behavioral correlates and to propose plausible mechanisms of individual cognitive resilience in the face of typical age-related neural declines.

Right Lateralized Brain Reserve Offsets Age-Related Deficits in Ignoring Distraction

“…CR is a theoretical construct used to explain inter-individual differences in susceptibility to cognitive decline associated with disease pathology (e.g., Alzheimer’s disease) or normal aging and as such is not assessed directly but measured by various proxies ( Stern et al. 2019 ).…”

“…The concept of brain reserve has been introduced by Stern to highlight inter-individual differences in brain structure as anatomically quantifiable aspects of reserve, distinct from differences in cognitive processes underlying variability in susceptibility to cognitive decline, that is, cognitive reserve ( Stern 2009 , 2012 ; Stern et al. 2018 ; Stern et al. 2019 ).…”

A Systematic Review on Predictors of Working Memory Training Responsiveness in Healthy Older Adults: Methodological Challenges and Future Directions

“…In cognitive intervention research, it is discussed that cognitive interventions might be able to diminish the cognitive reserve disadvantage of less-educated older adults (Clark et al, 2016 ; Mondini et al, 2016 ), thereby leading to more training-related gains. As this might appear counterintuitive at first, it is important here to differentiate between brain reserve and lifetime proxies of cognitive reserve such as education, occupational attainment, and leisure time activities (Stern et al, 2019 ). A higher cognitive reserve is commonly associated with less cognitive deficits, given the same brain pathology (Wilson et al, 2013 ; Hoenig et al, 2019 ).…”

Cognitive reserve: an evolving concept

“…Structural studies, although scarce, tend to show an association between fewer structural brain changes over time and preservation of cognitive performance (Salthouse, 2011). Functional studies, on the other hand, are more complex to interpret; there is, however, some evidence that BM expresses itself as the preservation of functional activation across ages when performing a specific cognitive task (Stern et al, 2019). In other words, an "older brain" behaves as a "younger brain" in terms of task-oriented neural recruitment.…”