This is a concept that originated at the end of the decade of the 80 as a result of a very revealing study.
Scientists analyzed the brains of a group of people and found changes typical of having suffered from advanced Alzheimer’s.
However, in life, these individuals did not show symptoms of the disease .
The reason? “They had a large enough cognitive reserve to compensate for the damage and continue to function as usual,” notes Harvard Health Publishing, the publication of Harvard Medical School in the article What is cognitive reserve?
Other research has shown that People with higher cognitive reserve can more effectively avoid symptoms of degenerative brain changes associated with dementia or other brain diseases, such as Parkinson’s, multiple sclerosis, or stroke.
That’s good news and it becomes even more positive because it is possible, throughout life, to try to build a solid “cognitive reserve” to strengthen the networks of the brain.
Among reservations
According to Dr. Manuel Vázquez Marrufo, professor of the Department of Experimental Psychology at the University ad de Sevilla, cognitive reserve is what is called a “construct” in psychology and neuroscience, that is, a concept that is used to address a theory, although “it is not yet known for sure what physiological correlates are really present.” behind her”.
The expert defines it as “a kind of property” that we have – a product of experience – and that “effectively protects us against injuries that occur in the brain”.
For the publication of the American university it is “the capacity of our brain to improvise and find alternative ways of doing a job“.
Vásquez explains to the BBC World that the brain has plasticity mechanisms, based on genetic factors, that allow there to be a c compensation when we suffer, for example, an injury or trauma.
This is called brain reserve and is more related to the brain’s ability to generate new neurons, with the strength of the synapse, with “brain hardware”, with its structure.
For its part, cognitive reserve is what accumulates through our daily activities and has more to do with cognitive activity than it has developed since birth.
In this way, a combination of what you have in your brain reserve and in your cognitive reserve will determine “how the brain will deal with injuries or neurodegenerative diseases,” he says. the doctor.
Or as stated in the study “Cognitive reserve questionnaire: psychometric properties in the Argentine population”, published in the Journal of Neurology:
“For a same brain damage in two patients with equal brain reserve, the p patient with greater cognitive reserve will be able to better tolerate the damage and slow down the clinical manifestations.
In other words, the cognitive reserve designates the set of cognitive resources that a person manages to acquire in the course of his life, and that confer protection against aging and brain damage”.
Active
In the book Cognitive Reserve: Theory and Applications, Yaakov Stern, Professor of Neuropsychology at Columbia University, points out that brain reserve is an example of what could be called a “passive reserve model”, in which it “is derived from the size of the brain or the neuronal count”.
“In contrast, the cognitive reserve model a suggests that the brain actively tries to cope with brain damage by using preexisting cognitive processing approaches or recruiting compensatory approaches.”
The neuroscientist, who has studied cognitive reserve for decades, seeks to understand “why some individuals show more cognitive deficits than others having the same degree of brain pathology”, he indicates on the university’s website.
“My own research, and that of others in The field has shown that aspects of life experience, such as educational or occupational achievement, can provide a buffer against brain pathology, allowing some people to remain functional longer than others.”
In the book, Stern states that “individual variability in cognitive reserve can originate in innate or genetic differences or in life experiences”.
The Study of the Nuns
In 1986, a young epidemiologist named David Snowdon approached the nuns of a convent in Minnesota to conduct a study that sought to examine the mysteries of aging and Alzheimer’s.
The study, which spanned several years, is considered one of the most innovative efforts to understand the disease and went down in history as the Nun Study
Participated almost 700 religious, who underwent cognitive and memory tests every anus.
“Sister Mary, the gold standard for the Nun Study, was a remarkable woman who scored high on cognitive tests before her death at the 101 years old.
What is most remarkable is that it maintained that high level despite having abundant skeins neurofibrillary and senile plaques, the classic lesions of Alzheimer’s disease“wrote Dr. Snowdon.
The study tu ow a pivotal moment when the team of researchers found a file cabinet full of diaries written by the sisters when they entered the order, it evoked the BBC documentary Ageing with Grace.
“The team found that those sisters who used more complex sentences and ideas were less likely to develop Alzheimer’s.”
As they died, each sister’s brain was analyzed for more information and these samples are now stored at the University of Minnesota.
Education and entertainment
In 2017, an international study commissioned by the prestigious scientific journal The Lancet on dementia prevention and care found that individuals who continue to learn or train throughout life are more likely to of developing the desired additional cognitive reserves.
It is believed that there are external factors that can improve our cognitive reserve and it is not only about education and work, but stimulating recreational activities of daily life.
“The influence of the environment is fundamental”, indicates Vásquez.
“In neuroscience and psychobiology, we know that genes determine many aspects of the nervous system, but the environment also modulates that construction”.
“It will depend on your activities, on those external factors that you have promoted, which are going to generate reserves in some cognitive elements, such as example: memory and language”.
The expert points out that a very important weight had always been given to formal education, to learning different types of concepts and academic subjects.
“But there is a lot of debate about whether activities of daily living such as reading, playing an instrument, can help cognitive reserve”.
“There are even results that suggest that its contribution to cognitive reserve is even higher than education itself, no matter how many hours we dedicate to it”.
That is “a controversy” in itself , acknowledges the professor, “but what is clear is that people who keep their minds occupied will always enhance that cognitive reserve and will cope much better with the deterioration of aging.”
And does not necessarily refer to neurodegenerative diseases, but to other challenges that may arise.
The Harvard publication indicates that stronger cognitive reserve can also help us “function better for longer if exposed to unexpected life events. such as stress, surgery or toxins in the environment”.
Vásquez, who specializes in multiple sclerosis, has seen how in young people, “having a daily cognitive activity, such as reading , develop a web page, make a blog, can be positive when it comes to dealing with the possible cognitive deterioration caused by the disease”.
It is never too late
No matter the age, everything indicates that the cognitive reserve can be strengthened and enriched.
Of AH í the importance of continuing to carry out activities in old age that make us exercise memory, attention, language.
“This protects us from the natural cognitive decline that occurs with aging”, says the academic.
And the faster you start, the better.
For example, playing a musical instrument “involves recruiting new brain structures or at least trying to use more of some that were not being fully used.”
Bilingualism and speaking several languages it can also be beneficial for cognitive reserve.
The Barcelona Center for Neurocognitive Diagnosis and Intervention, which specializes in neurodegenerative diseases and cognitive disorders, indicates that healthy daily practices that help maintain a healthy mind active “are potentially favorable factors to develop cognitive reserve”.
And proposes some guidelines:
(Photo: GETTY IMAGES)
Although -the book edited by Stern warns- cognitive reserve is a complex concept and more research is needed to expand our understanding of it, it is essential to help the brain to stay healthy to face any mishap.
Several of the recommendations are already well known: don’t smoke, exercise regularly, maintain a healthy weight, treat hypertension and diabetes, get enough sleep.
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An active life without excesses is appreciated not only by the body, but also by the brain.
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