The moderating effect of cognitive reserve on cognitive aging

Reserve models can be categorized into two processes: (a) a passive process, which describes reserve in terms of the amount of damage an individual can sustain before reaching the threshold for clinical symptoms, and (b) an active process, which highlights the brain’s capacity for adaptation or compensation in the presence of neuropathology or injury. The passive reserve models focus on “brain reserve,” referring to individual differences in brain structure that enable better coping with pathology. The active reserve models focus on CR, which reflects the brain’s functional and dynamic ability to optimize or compensate for its resources that enable cognitive performance that exceeds expectations in the context of brain pathology or aging (Guo et al., 2025).

• CR buffers early AD cognitive impact from neuroimaging biomarkers.
• High CR may lead to sharper cognitive decline in later AD stages.
• CR’s “critical point” may lie between CU and MCI stages.