The Concept of Cognitive Reserve and Its Clinical Understanding

Abstract

  In recent years, the concept of cognitive reserve has been proposed as an explanation for the fact that brain pathology does not necessarily match the actual level of cognitive function. Cognitive reserve refers to an individualʼs potential ability to suppress decline in cognitive function even when affected by brain pathology or aging. People with high cognitive reserve are less likely to suffer functional impairment from brain damage than those with low cognitive reserve, and even in normal aging, the degree of cognitive decline is predicted to differ. Until now, the relationship between these cognitive reserve proxies and cognitive function has been extensively investigated, mainly in elderly people and people with dementia. Furthermore, the application of the concept of cognitive reserve to various neurological and psychiatric disorders may be considered in the future. Here, we have summarized the basic ideas for this purpose and introduced previous research on cognitive reserve from the perspective of clinical neuropsychology as a perspective for better understanding clinical patients.