The art of thinking · 7 · Brain and learning
Cognitive reserve
Also known as: Brain reserve and cognitive reserve, Reserve hypothesis
German: Kognitive Reserve
In neuropsychology, cognitive reserve is Yaakov Stern’s concept for the adaptability of cognitive processes that helps explain why people with similar age-related brain changes or brain damage differ in how much their cognitive performance is affected.
- Cognitive psychology
- Brain research
In one sentence
Cognitive reserve (Yaakov Stern): why people with similar brain aging or damage differ in how much their cognitive performance is affected.
Example
Two people show similar changes on a brain scan; one performs markedly worse on memory tests than the other. The reserve concept is used to describe and study such differences — it is not a test score.
What the research shows
Yaakov Stern (2002) distinguished passive models of reserve, such as brain reserve (brain size or number of neurons), from an active model, cognitive reserve: differences in how efficiently and flexibly the brain uses its networks, which let some people cope better with the same pathology. He reviewed the research in 2009. Epidemiological studies associate measures such as education, occupational complexity and leisure activities with a lower risk of clinical impairment for a given degree of brain change; these measures are proxies for reserve, not reserve itself.
Evidence status
The concept is widely used in research on aging and dementia. The associations come largely from observational studies, so causes and mechanisms are debated, and the measures of reserve differ between studies. The concept describes differences between groups in research; it is not a measure of intelligence and not a diagnosis.
How it applies
- Scope: Cognitive reserve concerns resilience to aging and brain damage. It does not describe how habits of thinking form and should not be used as a metaphor for them.
- No advice on health: The entry describes research; it gives no recommendations on prevention, training or therapy.
External references
- Stern, Y. (2002). What is cognitive reserve? Theory and research application of the reserve concept. Journal of the International Neuropsychological Society, 8(3), 448–460. https://doi.org/10.1017/S1355617702813248
- Stern, Y. (2009). Cognitive reserve. Neuropsychologia, 47(10), 2015–2028. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.neuropsychologia.2009.03.004
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