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Updated: Mar 27, 2026

Evaluation of the Cognitive Performance of Hypertensive Patients with Silent Cerebrovascular Lesions
Published on: April 23, 2021
Cerebral correlates of cognitive reserve
Lawrence J Whalley1, Roger T Staff2, Helen C Fox3
1Aberdeen Biomedical Imaging Centre, College of Life Sciences and Medicine, University of Aberdeen, Aberdeen AB25 2ZD, UK; Institute of Applied Health Sciences, University of Aberdeen, Aberdeen, UK.
Abstract:
Cognitive reserve is a hypothetical concept introduced to explain discrepancies between severity of clinical dementia syndromes and the extent of dementia pathology. We examined cognitive reserve in a research programme that followed up a non-clinical sample born in 1921 or 1936 and IQ-tested age 11 years in 1932 or 1947. Structural MRI exams were acquired in about 50% of the sample from whom a subsample were recruited into an additional fMRI study. Here, we summarise findings from seven inter-related studies. These support an understanding of cognitive reserve as a balance between positive life course activity-driven experiences and the negative effects of brain pathologies including cerebrovascular disease and total and regional brain volume loss. Hypothesised structural equation models illustrate the relative causal effects of these positive and negative contributions. Cognitive reserve is considered in the context of choice of interventions to prevent dementia and the opposing effects of cerebrovascular disease and Alzheimer like brain appearances.
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