Cognitive reserve is not associated with improved performance in all cognitive domains.
Cognitive reserve beneficially affects cognitive performance, even into advanced age. However, the benefits afforded by high cognitive reserve may not extend to all cognitive domains. This study investigated whether cognitive reserve differentially affects performance on cognitive tasks, in 521 cognitively healthy individuals aged 60 to 98 years (Mage = 68, SD = 6.22, 287 female); years of education was used to index cognitive reserve. Cognitive performance variables assessed attention, executive functions, verbal memory, motor performance, orientation, perception of emotion, processing speed, and working memory. Bootstrapped regression analyses revealed that cognitive reserve was associated with attention, executive functions, verbal and working memory, and orientation; and not significantly related to emotion perception, processing speed, or motor performance. Cognitive reserve appears to differentially affect individual cognitive domains, which extends current theory that purports benefits for all domains. This finding highlights the possibility of using tests not (or minimally) associated with cognitive reserve, to screen for cognitive impairment and dementia in late life; these tests will likely best track brain health, free of compensatory neural mechanisms.
['Lavrencic|Louise M|LM|', 'Churches|Owen F|OF|', 'Keage|Hannah A D|HAD|http://orcid.org/0000-0002-6814-4997']
D000368:Aged D000369:Aged, 80 and over D001288:Attention D003071:Cognition D058245:Cognitive Reserve D005260:Female D006801:Humans D007266:Inhibition, Psychological D008297:Male D018782:Maze Learning D008568:Memory D008875:Middle Aged D009483:Neuropsychological Tests D010775:Photic Stimulation D011597:Psychomotor Performance D013223:Statistics as Topic D014706:Verbal Learning
cognition cognitive reserve Aging education