Cognitive reserve: keeping your mind young while your brain ages.
Katerina Placek was the lead author on this study.
or technically,
Cognitive reserve in frontotemporal degeneration.
[See Original Abstract on Pubmed]
Authors of the study: Katerina Placek, Lauren Massimo, Christopher Olm, Kylie Ternes, Kim Firn, Vivianna Van Deerlin, Edward B. Lee, John Q. Trojanowski, Virginia M.-Y. Lee, David Irwin, Murray Grossman, Corey T. McMillan
We’ve all heard the stories of the 90-year-old who is as spry as they were at 50. The internet is teeming with theories as to what keeps these people so sharp in their old age. It turns out that the brainThe brain is an organ that serves as the center of the nervous system in all vertebrate and most invertebrate animals. of a 90-year-old chess champion may look the same as a 70-year-old with late-stage dementia. So, what’s the difference? To begin to get at this question, scientists are beginning to study “cognitive reserve”. Cognitive reserve refers to the observation that people who have amassed more “experiential resources”, such as education, social interactions or occupation, remain cognitively normal even when their brainsThe brain is an organ that serves as the center of the nervous system in all vertebrate and most invertebrate animals. show significant degeneration. In other words, people with greater cognitive reserve are less susceptible to the memory loss and dementia that comes with old age.
The relationship between cognitive reserve and AlzheimerA disease (typically in older people) in which neurons die, causing people to lose their memories.’s disease has been well studied. Katerina Placek, a neuroscience graduate student at Penn in Corey McMillan's lab, wondered how cognitive reserve affects people with another common form of dementia caused by frontotemporal lobar degeneration (FTLD). As its name suggests, FTLD is characterized by a loss of neuronsA nerve cell that uses electrical and chemical signals to send information to other cells including other neurons and muscles in the frontal lobe and temporal lobe of the brainThe brain is an organ that serves as the center of the nervous system in all vertebrate and most invertebrate animals., which leads to behavioral, social and language impairments. Unlike in AlzheimerA disease (typically in older people) in which neurons die, causing people to lose their memories.’s disease, memory remains relatively intact in FTLD. To understand how FTLD and cognitive reserve interact, Katerina asked patients with FTLD to perform a cognitive task and compared this to their cognitive reserve score. Katerina found that patients with higher cognitive reserve performed better on a cognitive test of their language abilities. Specifically, participants in Katerina’s study were asked to name as many words as they could starting with the letters F”, “A”, and “S” for 1 minute each (these letters were chosen because they are some of the most common in the English language - try it yourself and see how you do!). Katerina first found that FTLD patients perform worse on this task than healthy participants, which is not surprising given the known language deficits associated with FTLD. Interestingly, Katerina found that among FTLD patients, those with higher cognitive reserve were able to name more words than patients with lower cognitive reserve for each letter. Katerina also looked at the brainsThe brain is an organ that serves as the center of the nervous system in all vertebrate and most invertebrate animals. of these patients using an MRI, and she saw that those with higher cognitive reserve also had less degeneration in their frontal and temporal lobes, the most affected regions in FTLD.
While your genesA unit of DNA that encodes a protein and tells a cell how to function may play a role in cognitive reserve, Katerina’s finding tells us that there are environmental factors at play too. Maybe you’ve heard of one of the many apps and games (Lumosity and Cognifit are two examples) that claim to improve your memory or your cognition. There is not yet consensus among scientists about the efficacy of these games, but in general, be wary of such claims. Instead, continue to learn, have interesting conversations with friends, and seek out experiences that challenge you to think. By doing so, we make our brainsThe brain is an organ that serves as the center of the nervous system in all vertebrate and most invertebrate animals. stronger and more resilient to the detrimental effects of aging.
The relationship between cognitive reserve and AlzheimerA disease (typically in older people) in which neurons die, causing people to lose their memories.’s disease has been well studied. Katerina Placek, a neuroscience graduate student at Penn in Corey McMillan's lab, wondered how cognitive reserve affects people with another common form of dementia caused by frontotemporal lobar degeneration (FTLD). As its name suggests, FTLD is characterized by a loss of neuronsA nerve cell that uses electrical and chemical signals to send information to other cells including other neurons and muscles in the frontal lobe and temporal lobe of the brainThe brain is an organ that serves as the center of the nervous system in all vertebrate and most invertebrate animals., which leads to behavioral, social and language impairments. Unlike in AlzheimerA disease (typically in older people) in which neurons die, causing people to lose their memories.’s disease, memory remains relatively intact in FTLD. To understand how FTLD and cognitive reserve interact, Katerina asked patients with FTLD to perform a cognitive task and compared this to their cognitive reserve score. Katerina found that patients with higher cognitive reserve performed better on a cognitive test of their language abilities. Specifically, participants in Katerina’s study were asked to name as many words as they could starting with the letters F”, “A”, and “S” for 1 minute each (these letters were chosen because they are some of the most common in the English language - try it yourself and see how you do!). Katerina first found that FTLD patients perform worse on this task than healthy participants, which is not surprising given the known language deficits associated with FTLD. Interestingly, Katerina found that among FTLD patients, those with higher cognitive reserve were able to name more words than patients with lower cognitive reserve for each letter. Katerina also looked at the brainsThe brain is an organ that serves as the center of the nervous system in all vertebrate and most invertebrate animals. of these patients using an MRI, and she saw that those with higher cognitive reserve also had less degeneration in their frontal and temporal lobes, the most affected regions in FTLD.
While your genesA unit of DNA that encodes a protein and tells a cell how to function may play a role in cognitive reserve, Katerina’s finding tells us that there are environmental factors at play too. Maybe you’ve heard of one of the many apps and games (Lumosity and Cognifit are two examples) that claim to improve your memory or your cognition. There is not yet consensus among scientists about the efficacy of these games, but in general, be wary of such claims. Instead, continue to learn, have interesting conversations with friends, and seek out experiences that challenge you to think. By doing so, we make our brainsThe brain is an organ that serves as the center of the nervous system in all vertebrate and most invertebrate animals. stronger and more resilient to the detrimental effects of aging.
About the brief writer: Emily Feierman
Emily is a second year graduate student interested in understanding how complex learning processes are disrupted in neuropsychiatric disease.