Deriving and testing the validity of cognitive reserve candidates

Abstract

Empirical support has established cognitive reserve (CR) well as a concept since its inception three decades ago, and most brain researchers subscribe to some version of CR as a collection of subject factors that influence cognitive performance beyond simple brain structural health. We give a simple but precise analytic recipe to test requirements for any plausible cognitive reserve candidate based on brain imaging. Gradations of partial fulfillment of some but not all of these requirements are possible.