On Sat, 21 Jan 2012 17:36:20 -0800, Philippe Gervaix wrote: >Hello tipsters, >I am currently investigating the concept of "cognitive reserve". Can anyone >tell me about the origins of the concept and its scientific validity? To what >extent is it metaphoric? What does the term "reserve" infer as towards >cognitive decline or impairment?
A few points: (1) A quick review of resources shows that the concept of "cognitive reserve" is one that is primarily used by neurologists. The origin of the concept appears to be based on a 1988 study in the Archives of Neurology that showed that the level of cognitive functioning was not associated with the degree of brain pathology as shown by autopsies of people with Alzheimer's disease. It was commonly assumed that there should be a simple relationship between degree of brain pathology (amount of brain damage) and level of cognitive functioning but this appears not to be the case. This difference between brain pathology and cognitive functioning is referred to as "cognitive reserve". Wikipedia has an entry on cognitive reserve (yadda-yadda) which can serves as an entry point to the literature (it provides the full reference to the 1988 study); see: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cognitive_reserve (2) A search of scholar.google.com shows a number of articles on the concept and the researcher Yaakov Stern has done much to promote the concept. Here is a link to a 2002 review article by him: http://journals.cambridge.org/action/displayAbstract;jsessionid=3BBA2B90A1D67F43E3DFB97CE3B41BFF.journals?fromPage=online&aid=106229 Here is a 2009 review article that provides a broader definition of the concept: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0028393209001237 (3) A search of PsycInfo provides many hits but because this is a neurological concept, it is better to use www.pubmed.org to search the research literature. Pubmed also provides access to a number of journal articles and here is a link to one such article that can serve as an entry point to Pubmed for this concept: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2705657/ -Mike Palij New York University [email protected] --- You are currently subscribed to tips as: [email protected]. To unsubscribe click here: http://fsulist.frostburg.edu/u?id=13090.68da6e6e5325aa33287ff385b70df5d5&n=T&l=tips&o=15572 or send a blank email to leave-15572-13090.68da6e6e5325aa33287ff385b70df...@fsulist.frostburg.edu
