Brain Reserves...
Do You Have Your Share?

What are brain reserves?

Fit brains have what scientists call cognitive brain reserve. It is defined as the capacity of the brain to resist the expression of symptoms in the face of existing neuropathology.

In other words, people with more cognitive reserve can tolerate more pathologic changes before they show any symptoms.

If you have healthy brain you will still get older and you may still have Alzheimer's Disease Symptoms. But having a fit brain will help in delaying the effects of age and the onset of dementia.

You may be wondering:

“What can I do to get some cognitive reserve?” Here are 2 factors that seem crucial:

- Education
- Level of intellectual stimulation (through your job or your leisure activities)

Education isn't determined by how many advanced college degrees you have. In fact recent studies have shown that persons who "Google" topics on the web have increased brain power over those who don't.

Intellectual stimulation of any kind appears to increase cognitive reserve by increasing the density of the connections between brain cells (that is by increasing synapses between neurons).

Are cognitive reserves visible in the brain?

In a recent study, Perneczky and colleagues (2006) used PET to explore the effect of cognitive reserve on Alzheimer’s disease. They scanned the brain of 93 patients with mild Alzheimer’s disease and 16 healthy controls.

It was expected that people with the more severe Alzheimer’s disease pathology would show less cerebral blood flow, that is less activity, in the regions affected by the disease. Remember that blood flow in the brain is what PET measures.

Perneczky hypothesized that patients with more years of schooling would have more pronounced deficits in regions typically affected by the pathology of Alzheimer’s disease.

How could this be….?

Here is the reasoning: say that Ms A. has a low level of brain reserve. She has developed Alzheimer’s 2 years ago. She doesn’t have much pathology in her brain yet and her symptoms (memory problems, etc.) correspond to a mild stage of Alzheimer’s disease.

Ms B. has a high level of brain reserve. She has developed Alzheimer’s 5 years ago. She has a high level of pathology in her brain. However, thanks to her brain reserves, she only shows symptoms corresponding to a mild stage of Alzheimer’s disease.

Results of this PET study show that indeed patients with more education (such as Ms B.) consistently had more pronounced deficits in regions typically affected by the pathology of Alzheimer’s disease compared to patients with less years of schooling (such as Ms A.)

These findings suggest that education is associated with brain power and that people with higher education can cope with brain damage for a longer time.

What if one doesn’t have higher education...Is it too late to build cognitive reserves? The good news is that it is NOT too late! Education is not the only factor. One can always find ways to get enough mental stimulation by choosing our jobs and engaging in leisure activities such as reading, learning new things, going to museums, etc.

One of the most interesting and entertaining ways to improve brain fitness is with brain games.

--- This article was written by Pascale Michelon, Ph. D., for SharpBrains.com. Dr. Michelon has a Ph.D. in Cognitive Psychology and has worked as a Research Scientist at Washington University in Saint Louis, in the Psychology Department. She conducted several research projects to understand how the brain makes use of visual information and memorizes facts. She is now an Adjunct Faculty at Washington University, and teaches Memory Workshops in numerous retirement communities in the St Louis area.

Gene

Gene's Comments

Lumosity is not the only "brain-training" site we've reviewed, but it is one of the most scientific. Their games have been lab-tested and shown to add to improve memory, attention and processing speed.

Two of my favorites are Bird Watching and Monster Garden. They are surprisingly fun, and I also like the feature of being able to track my progress.

For a Free Trial go to Scientific Brain Training: Lumosity Brain Fitness Program. The cost is only $6.60 a month. What do you have to lose...except maybe a little forgetting?

May your Brain be nimble brain be quick.

Quicker than lightning...never missing a trick!

Gene

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