Cognitive reserve modulates functional brain responses during memory tasks: a PET study in healthy young and elderly subjects.

Full Abstract

Cognitive reserve (CR) is the ability of an individual to cope with advancing brain pathology so that he remains free of symptomatology. Epidemiological evidence and in vivo neurometabolic data suggest that CR may be mediated through education or IQ. The goal of this study was to investigate CR-mediated differential brain activation in 17 healthy young adults and 19 healthy elders. Using nonquantitative H(2)(15)O PET scanning, we assessed relative regional cerebral blood flow while subjects performed a serial recognition memory task under two conditions:
nonmemory control (NMC), in which one shape was presented in each study trial; and titrated demand (TD), in which study list length was adjusted so that each subject recognized shapes at approximately 75% accuracy. A factor score that summarized years of education and scores on two IQ indices was used as an index of CR. Voxel-wise, multiple regression analyses were performed with TD minus NMC difference PET counts as the dependent variable and the CR variable as the independent variable of interest. We identified brain regions where regression slopes were different from zero in each separate group, and also those where regression slopes differed between the two age groups. The slopes were significantly more positive in the young in the right inferior temporal gyrus, right postcentral gyrus, and cingulate, while the elderly had a significantly more positive slope in left cuneus. Brain regions where systematic relationships between CR and brain activation differ as a function of aging are loci where compensation for aging has occurred. They may mediate differential ability to cope with brain changes in aging.

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Author information

Author/s: Scarmeas, Nikolaos (N); Zarahn, Eric (E); Anderson, Karen E (KE); Hilton, John (J); Flynn, Joseph (J); Van Heertum, Ronald L (RL); Sackeim, Harold A (HA); Stern, Yaakov (Y);

Affiliation: Cognitive Neuroscience Division of the Taub Institute for Research in Alzheimer's Disease and the Aging Brain, New York, NY 10032, USA.

Grants: AG 14671 (Agency:NIA NIH HHS) ; RR 00645 (Agency:NCRR NIH HHS)

Journal and publication information

Publication Type: Clinical Trial; Comparative Study; Journal Article; Research Support, U.S. Gov't, P.H.S.

Journal: NeuroImage (Neuroimage), published in United States. (Language: eng)

Reference: 2003-Jul; vol 19 (issue 3) : pp 1215-27

Dates: Created 2003/07/25; Completed 2003/09/09; Revised 2007/11/14;

PMID: 12880846, status: MEDLINE (last retrieval date: 12/26/2008)

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MeSH headings (categories)

This article was linked to the MESH Headings shown below.

Adult
Aged
Aging - metabolism
Brain - physiology; radionuclide imaging
Cognition - physiology
Female
Form Perception - physiology
Humans
Image Processing, Computer-Assisted

Linear Models
Magnetic Resonance Imaging
Male
Memory - physiology
Neuropsychological Tests
Oxygen Radioisotopes - diagnostic use
Reading
Tomography, Emission-Computed
Wechsler Scales

Associated Chemicals: Oxygen Radioisotopes (0)

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