cognitive reserve
Brain's backup capacity
Cognitive reserve is the brain's ability to compensate for damage or decline by drawing on accumulated mental resources—education, complex work, social engagement, intellectual stimulation.
Someone with high cognitive reserve may show fewer symptoms of dementia despite significant brain pathology: Her years of teaching built cognitive reserve that helped her cope with early Alzheimer's.
The concept explains why people with similar brain damage often show different levels of impairment.
- Alzheimer's diseaseDegenerative brain condition affecting memory
- social interactionCommunication between people
- bilingualismProficiency in two languages
- neuroplasticityBrain's self-rewiring ability
- leisure activitiesPursuits during free time
physical exercise · aging brain · use it or lose it · mental sharpness · neural networks · dementia · memory loss · lifelong learning · compensate · mental resilience · traumatic brain injury · stroke recovery · genetic predisposition · education · mindfulness practices · synapses · neurons · gray matter
- cognitionthinking, reasoning, thought, remembering, memory retrieval
- aging psychologyaging brain, life review, late adulthood, life span, brain aging
- cognitive agingmemory decline, memory loss, brain aging, aging brain, dementia
- brain researchfMRI, EEG, neurons, brain imaging, brain scans
- cognitive testsStanford-Binet, IQ test, intelligence test, memory test, attention test
- neuroplasticityLTD, BDNF, neural pathways, neurogenesis, critical periods
cognitive reserveneurodegeneration
Progressive loss of neurons
cognitive decline · mental deterioration · cognitive impairment · brain damage