ABSTRACT
Individual differences in risk morbidity are a well-recognized factor in clinical practice. However, medical research has yet to routinely incorporate the concept of cognitive reserve (CR) in understanding how the brain accommodates, copes and changes in the presence of pathology. Broadly defined, cognitive reserve refers to the discrepancy between the degree of pathology and the degree of functional impairment evidenced across individuals with the same disorder. The construct of cognitive reserve has been posited as a potential explanation for individual susceptibility to disease states and the variable levels of disruption in functional performance.
