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It is a concept that originated in the late 1980s 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, those individuals showed no symptoms of the disease.
The reason? “They had a large enough cognitive reserve to compensate for the damage and continue to function as usual,” he says. Harvard Health Publishingthe Harvard Medical School publication in the article What is cognitive reserve?
Other research has shown that people with higher cognitive reserve can better 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 gets even more positive because it’s possible, throughout life, to try to build strong “cognitive reserve” to strengthen the brain’s networks.
between reservations
According to Dr. Manuel Vázquez Marrufo, professor at the Department of Experimental Psychology at the University of Seville, 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 behind it”.
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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 to do a worked“.
Vásquez explains to BBC Mundo that the brain has plasticity mechanisms, based on genetic factors, that allow 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 “the hardware of the brain”, with its structure.
For its part, cognitive reserve is what accumulates through our daily activities and has more to do with cognitive activity than has been developed from birth.
That way, a combination of what you have in your brain reserve and what you have in your cognitive reserve will determine “how the brain will deal with injury or neurodegenerative disease,” the doctor says.
Or as the study “Cognitive reserve questionnaire: psychometric properties in the Argentine population” suggests, published in the Journal of Neurology:
“For the same brain damage in two patients with the same brain reserve, the patient with the highest cognitive reserve will be able to tolerate damage better and slow clinical manifestations.
In other words, cognitive reserve designates the set of cognitive resources that a person manages to acquire over the course of his life, and that confer protection against aging and brain injury.”
active
In the book Cognitive Reserve: Theory and ApplicationsYaakov Stern, Professor of Neuropsychology at Columbia University, points out that brain reserve is an example of what might be called a “passive reserve model,” in which it “derives from brain size or brain count.” neural”.
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“In contrast, the cognitive reserve model suggests that the brain actively tries to cope brain damage by using pre-existing 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 deficit than others having the same degree of brain pathology“, 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 employment achievementsmay provide a reserve against brain pathology, allowing some people to remain functional longer than others.”
In the book, Stern argues that “individual variability in cognitive reserve may originate from innate or genetic differences or in life experiences“.
The Study of the Nuns
In 1986, a young epidemiologist named David Snowdon approached nuns at a convent in Minnesota to conduct a study that sought to examine the mysteries of aging and Alzheimer’s.
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Stock photo of nuns.
The study, which spanned several years, is considered one of the most innovative efforts to understand the disease and went down in history as Nun Studythe Study of the Nuns.
Nearly 700 nuns participated, and were given memory and cognitive tests each year.
“Sister Mary, the gold standard for the Nun Study, was a remarkable woman who scored high on cognitive tests before her death at 101 years old.
What is most remarkable is that it maintained that high level despite having abundant neurofibrillary tangles and senile plaques, the classic lesions of Alzheimer’s diseaseDr Snowdon wrote.
The study had a turning point when the team of researchers found a filing cabinet full of diaries written by the sisters when they entered the order, the BBC documentary recalled. Aging 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 the prevention and care of dementia found that individuals who continue learning or training throughout life they are more likely to develop the desired additional cognitive reserves.
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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,” says 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: 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’s a lot of debate about whether activities of daily living like reading, playing an instrument can help cognitive reserve.”
“There are even results that suggest that its contribution to cognitive reserve is even greater than education itself, no matter how many hours we spend on it.”
That is “a controversy” in itself, acknowledges the professor, “but what is clear is that people who keep their minds busy will always enhance that cognitive reserve and will cope much better with the deterioration of aging.”
And it 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 eventssuch 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, developing a web page, making a blog, can be positive when dealing with the possible cognitive deterioration caused by illness”.
It’s never too late
No matter the age, everything indicates that the cognitive reserve can be strengthened and enriched.
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Hence the importance of continuing to carry out activities in old age that make us exercise memory, attention, language.
“That is protecting 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 recruit new brain structures or at least try to use more of some that were not being fully used”.
Bilingualism and speaking multiple languages can also be beneficial for cognitive reserve.
The Center for Neurocognitive Diagnosis and Intervention of Barcelona, which specializes in neurodegenerative diseases and cognitive disorders, indicates that healthy daily practices that help maintain an active mind “are potentially favorable factors to develop cognitive reserve.
And he proposes some guidelines:
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- Readsince it stimulates not only attention and concentration, but also memory and language.
- Learn something newbecause by doing so there is not only a cognitive stimulus and an acquisition of new resources and tools, “but at the same time it generates new synaptic connections that will favor brain plasticity in the face of changes that may occur in the future”.
- Lead an active social life.
- don’t stop playing, be it board games, complete crossword puzzles or the different alternatives found on the internet. The key is that “they allow us to work on skills such as organization, planning, decision-making or initiative, for example.”
- change routines. Although routines give stability to our lives, “automating activities decreases brain activation since when we repeat tasks, learning decreases and brain activation is less and less.” So sometimes it pays to break a habit.
Although – it is warned in the book edited by Stern – cognitive reserve is a complex concept and more research is necessary to broaden our understanding of it, it is essential to help the brain stay healthy to face any mishap.
Several of the recommendations are already well known: don’t smoke, exercise regularly, maintain a healthy weight, treat high blood pressure and diabetes, get enough sleep.
An active life without excesses is appreciated not only by the body, but also by the brain.
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