Brain and cognitive reserve: Mediator(s) and construct validity, a critique

The concept of "reserve" has traditionally been defined on the basis of a single indicator (e.g., education or intracranial volume) that purports to moderate or buffer the effects of brain damage on different clinical outcomes. While studies have shown modest effects for some indicators, i...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Journal of clinical and experimental neuropsychology 2011-01, Vol.33 (1), p.121-130
Main Authors: Satz, Paul, Cole, Michael A., Hardy, David J., Rassovsky, Yuri
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Adult. Elderly
Aging
Biological and medical sciences
Brain - physiology
Brain Injuries - rehabilitation
Brain reserve
Cognitive reserve
Cognitive Reserve - physiology
Construct validity
Developmental psychology
Fundamental and applied biological sciences. Psychology
Geriatrics
Gerontology
Humans
Models, Psychological
Psychology. Psychoanalysis. Psychiatry
Psychology. Psychophysiology
Reproducibility of Results
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Summary:The concept of "reserve" has traditionally been defined on the basis of a single indicator (e.g., education or intracranial volume) that purports to moderate or buffer the effects of brain damage on different clinical outcomes. While studies have shown modest effects for some indicators, it has left the concept of "reserve" wanting as an explanatory construct. More recently efforts have been made to identify groups of indicators hypothesized to represent a construct for brain or cognitive reserve. These efforts have also proved wanting because of the lack of evidence to justify such a priori groupings of variables into a brain or cognitive reserve construct. This theoretical paper addresses the issue of construct validity (convergent and discriminant) for both brain and cognitive reserve as single or multiple reserve factors. Conceptual models are proposed that are (a) derived from the current extant reserve literature and (b) empirically testable in order to facilitate establishment of construct validity for the commonly used, and perhaps misused, brain and cognitive reserve concepts.
ISSN:1380-3395
1744-411X
DOI:10.1080/13803395.2010.493151