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Cognitive Reserve as a Protective Factor for Visuospatial Ability in Healthy Aging
Marika Mauti1,2, Elena Allegretti1, Raffaella I Rumiati3,4
1Department of Psychology, Sapienza University of Rome, 00185 Rome, Italy.
Healthcare (Basel, Switzerland)
|December 11, 2025
Summary
Cognitive reserve (CR) protects visuospatial skills in older adults. Higher CR scores improved accuracy in mental rotation and hand laterality tasks, showing a context-dependent resource allocation.
Area of Science:
- Neuroscience
- Psychology
- Gerontology
Background:
- Cognitive Reserve (CR) explains individual differences in resilience to age-related cognitive decline.
- Research on CR has focused on memory and language, leaving visuospatial processing underexplored.
- Visuospatial skills are critical for everyday functioning in older adults.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate the relationship between CR and visuospatial task performance in healthy older adults.
- To determine if the Cognitive Reserve Index Questionnaire (CRIq) predicts performance in mental rotation tasks.
- To explore how CR influences cognitive resource allocation in visuospatial processing.
Main Methods:
- Participants aged 55-85 completed hand laterality and letter-congruency tasks.
- Mental rotation tasks assessed visuospatial processing abilities.
- Cognitive Reserve Index Questionnaire (CRIq) measured cognitive reserve.
Main Results:
- Higher CRIq scores significantly predicted greater accuracy in both visuospatial tasks.
- Cognitive reserve demonstrated a protective effect on accuracy.
- Efficiency benefits were observed mainly under moderate task demands, indicating context-dependent resource modulation.
Conclusions:
- This study is the first to show a modulatory role of CR on visuospatial abilities in healthy older adults.
- Findings suggest CR differentially affects cognitive functions, including attention and spatial processing.
- Understanding CR mechanisms can inform interventions for successful aging and cognitive resilience.
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