Cognitive reserve impacts on inter-individual variability in resting-state cerebral metabolism in normal aging

There is a great deal of heterogeneity in the impact of aging on cognition and cerebral functioning. One potential factor contributing to individual differences among the elderly is the cognitive reserve, which designates the partial protection from the deleterious effects of aging that lifetime experience provides. Neuroimaging studies examining task-related activation in elderly people suggested that cognitive reserve takes the form of more efficient use of brain networks and/or greater ability to recruit alternative networks to compensate for age-related cerebral changes. In this exploratory multi-center study, we examined the relationships between cognitive reserve, as measured by educa…