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Objectives: Aging of the population encourages research on how to preserve cognition and quality of life. Many studies have shown that Physical Activity (PA) positively affects cognition in older adults. However, PA carried out throughout the individual's lifespan may also have an impact on cognition in old age. We hypothesize the existence of Motor Reserve (MR), a flexible and dynamic construct that increases over time and compensates for age-related motor and cognitive loss. Methods: Two questionnaires were developed and validated to estimate MR (Physical Activity carried out throughout the individual's lifespan) and Current Physical Activity (CPA, PA carried out in the previous 12 months). They were administered to 75 healthy individuals over 50 to verify the relation with cognition. MR and CPA include physical exercise (i.e., structured activities to improve or maintain physical fitness) and incidental PA, which we consider as any movement that leads to a metabolic cost above baseline (e.g., housekeeping, walking). In addition, the Cognitive Reserve Index questionnaire (CRI), a reliable predictor of cognitive performance, was used to measure each participant's Cognitive Reserve. Results: The factors that most influenced performance are Age and Cognitive Reserve, but also MR and CPA together and MR when it is the only factor. Conclusions: Cognitive variability in adult and elderly populations is explained by both MR and CPA. PA training could profitably be included in new preventive and existing interventions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Cognitive reserve (CR) refers to acquired experience that modulates resistance to physiological aging or brain damage. A relatively neglected issue is whether or not CR affects cognitive abilities equally. One relevant component of CR seems to be the richness of connections in semantic knowledge. We examined, in N = 66 healthy older adults, the potential influence of CR and semantic knowledge on the ability to retrieve proper names and common nouns. These two name categories have different semantic organisations, whereby proper names are characterised by a weaker semantic link to the information they refer to. Controlling for age, CR and semantic knowledge were linearly and positively associated with common noun retrieval. On the other hand, CR assisted proper name retrieval in older adults with a weaker semantic profile, while semantic knowledge assisted proper name retrieval in older adults with lower CR. This study contributes to define the cognitive underpinnings of CR. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background and purpose: Many different factors have been hypothesized to modulate cognition in an aging population according to their functioning at baseline. Methods: This retrospective study quantifies the relative contribution of age and sex as demographic factors, comorbidity, education and occupation (classified with the International Standard Classification of Occupation 2008) as cognitive reserve proxies in accounting for cognitive aging. All participants (3081) were evaluated at baseline with a complete neuropsychological test battery (T1) and those with unimpaired profiles were classified as subjective cognitive decline, those mildly impaired as mild neurocognitive decline and those severely impaired as major neurocognitive decline. From the first assessment 543 individuals were assessed a second time (T2), and 125 a third time (T3). Depending on whether they maintained or worsened their profile, based on their initial performance, participants were then classified as resistant or declining. Results: At baseline, all individuals showed education and occupation as the best predictors of performance, in addition to age. Furthermore, across assessments, the resistant had higher levels of education and occupation than the declining. In particular, the education and occupation predicted cognitive performance in all groups considered, from the subjective cognitive decline to the one with the most severely impaired participants. Conclusions: This study highlights the role of working activity in protecting from cognitive decline across all fragile elderly groups and even more so the individuals who are at very high risk of decline. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]