Cognitive reserve (CR) is a key factor to mitigate the cognitive decline during the aging process. Here, we used event-related potentials to target the preparatory brain activities associated with different levels of CR during visuo-motor simple response tasks (SRTs) and discriminative response tasks (DRTs). EEG was recorded from 28 healthy old (Age: 72.2 ± 4.7 years) and 14 young (Age: 22.2 ± 2.4 years) individuals during an SRT and a DRT. Depending on the CR median score, old participants were divided into either a high (High-CR) or a low CR (Low-CR) group. Behavioral performance and electrophysiological data were compared across the 3 groups. Compared with the Low-CR, the High-CR group showed larger prestimulus prefrontal (prefrontal negativity) and premotor activity (Bereitschaftspotential-BP), in the SRT, and increased premotor readiness (BP), in the DRT. The High-CR was faster and more accurate than the Low-CR group in the DRT and SRT, respectively. The High-CR group revealed enhanced brain preparatory activities that, paralleled to their behavioral performance, might reflect neural compensation and maintenance effects possibly counteracting the age-related decline in cognitive functioning.

中文翻译：

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认知储备对健康老年人视觉运动反应任务中前额叶和前运动皮层活动的作用

认知储备（CR）是缓解衰老过程中认知能力下降的关键因素。在这里，我们使用事件相关电位来针对视觉运动简单反应任务 (SRT) 和判别反应任务 (DRT) 期间与不同 CR 水平相关的准备性大脑活动。在 SRT 和 DRT 期间记录了 28 名健康老年人（年龄：72.2 ± 4.7 岁）和 14 名年轻人（年龄：22.2 ± 2.4 岁）的脑电图。根据 CR 中位数分数，老年参与者被分为高 (High-CR) 或低 CR (Low-CR) 组。比较三组的行为表现和电生理数据。与低 CR 相比，高 CR 组在 SRT 中表现出更大的前额叶（前额负性）和运动前活动（Bereitschaftspotential-BP），以及运动前准备（BP）增加，在 DRT。在 DRT 和 SRT 中，高 CR 组分别比低 CR 组更快、更准确。高 CR 组揭示了增强的大脑准备活动，与其行为表现平行，可能反映了神经补偿和维持效应，可能抵消了与年龄相关的认知功能下降。