Cognitive reserve: The warehouse within

Abstract

Dementia is characterized by progressive and mostly irreversible memory loss. Other neuropsychiatric disorders affect cognition in varying manner. Are all people affected with such disorders manifest clinically in similar manner or does our brain have some reserve to tolerate insults? Relevant researches over the last two decades were scrutinized to understand brain reserve, appreciate the conceptual change in the same over years, and how the same can be improved for better cognition and memory over the year. Literature evidence suggests that the cognitive reserve (CR) is a dynamic and functional concept. There is adequate evidence to suggest that enriched environment and various other measures are likely to improve CR across all age. Improving CR may delay or reverse the effects of aging or brain pathology.

Keywords

• Cognitive reserve
• enriched environment
• neurogenesis
• synaptogenesis