A task-invariant cognitive reserve network.

TitleA task-invariant cognitive reserve network.
Publication TypeJournal Article
Year of Publication2018
AuthorsStern Y, Gazes Y, Razlighi Q, Steffener J, Habeck C
JournalNeuroimage
Volume178
Pagination36-45
Date Published2018 09
ISSN1095-9572
KeywordsAdult, Aged, Aged, 80 and over, Brain Mapping, Cerebral Cortex, Cognitive Aging, Cognitive Reserve, Executive Function, Humans, Intelligence, Magnetic Resonance Imaging, Memory, Short-Term, Middle Aged, Nerve Net, Psychomotor Performance, Vocabulary, Young Adult
Abstract

The concept of cognitive reserve (CR) can explain individual differences in susceptibility to cognitive or functional impairment in the presence of age or disease-related brain changes. Epidemiologic evidence indicates that CR helps maintain performance in the face of pathology across multiple cognitive domains. We therefore tried to identify a single, "task-invariant" CR network that is active during the performance of many disparate tasks. In imaging data acquired from 255 individuals age 20-80 while performing 12 different cognitive tasks, we used an iterative approach to derive a multivariate network that was expressed during the performance of all tasks, and whose degree of expression correlated with IQ, a proxy for CR. When applied to held out data or forward applied to fMRI data from an entirely different activation task, network expression correlated with IQ. Expression of the CR pattern accounted for additional variance in fluid reasoning performance over and above the influence of cortical thickness, and also moderated between cortical thickness and reasoning performance, consistent with the behavior of a CR network. The identification of a task-invariant CR network supports the idea that life experiences may result in brain processing differences that might provide reserve against age- or disease-related changes across multiple tasks.

DOI10.1016/j.neuroimage.2018.05.033
Alternate JournalNeuroimage
PubMed ID29772378
PubMed Central IDPMC6409097
Grant ListR01 AG026158 / AG / NIA NIH HHS / United States
K01 AG051777 / AG / NIA NIH HHS / United States
RF1AG038465 / NH / NIH HHS / United States
RF1 AG038465 / AG / NIA NIH HHS / United States
R01 AG026158 / NH / NIH HHS / United States
Related Institute: 
Brain Health Imaging Institute (BHII)

Weill Cornell Medicine
Department of Radiology
525 East 68th Street New York, NY 10065