Cognitive reserve (CR) theory suggests that individual differences in general intelligence (IQ), occupational attainment or participation in leisure/recreational activities protect against cognitive decline. However the relationship between CR and cognitive functioning in patients with brain tumours has been very rarely investigated in past research. The present study systematically assesses whether CR concept can also be applied to cognitive functions of neurosurgical patients affected by brain tumours. We investigated the role of different CR proxies (education level, premorbid IQ, current IQ, working and leisure activity) in protecting language against brain tumours and surgery effects, considering interactions with demographic (sex/age), anatomical (hemisphere/lobe location of lesion) and clinical/biological variables (tumour type: High/Low Grade Glioma or Meningioma; lesion volume; lesion aggressiveness). One-hundred patients undergoing neuropsychological assessment before and immediately after surgery participated. A “Language Score” summarizing performance on all language tests was derived with Principal Component Analysis. Data were then analyzed with Multiple Regression and Classification and Regression Tree analyses to investigate possible relationships between predictors (CR proxies and clinical variables) and Language Score. We found that premorbid IQ was the best predictor of pre-operatory language integrity, above and beyond all clinical variables considered, also moderating lesion volume effects. Moreover, patients with lower pre-operatory language integrity and low-to-moderately aggressive tumours showed a mitigating effect of current IQ over surgery consequences. Results thus suggest that different CR proxies play a role in moderating cognitive decline following brain tumours and surgery.

认知储备（CR）理论表明，一般智力（IQ），职业成就或参与休闲/娱乐活动的个体差异可以防止认知能力下降。然而，在过去的研究中，很少研究脑肿瘤患者的CR与认知功能之间的关系。本研究系统地评估了CR概念是否也可以应用于受脑肿瘤影响的神经外科患者的认知功能。我们考虑了与人口统计学（性别/年龄），解剖学（半球/肺叶位置）的相互作用，研究了不同CR代表（教育水平，病态智商，当前智商，工作和休闲活动）在保护语言免受脑部肿瘤和手术影响方面的作用。病变）和临床/生物学变量（肿瘤类型：高/低度脑胶质瘤或脑膜瘤；病变体积 病变侵袭性）。一百名在手术前后进行神经心理学评估的患者参加了手术。通过主成分分析得出了总结所有语言测试成绩的“语言分数”。然后使用多元回归，分类和回归树分析对数据进行分析，以调查预测变量（CR代理和临床变量）与语言得分之间的可能关系。我们发现，病前智商是术前语言完整性的最佳预测指标，超过了所考虑的所有临床变量，也减轻了病变体积的影响。而且，术前语言完整性较低且侵袭性肿瘤低至中度的患者表现出当前智商对手术后果的缓解作用。因此，结果表明，不同的CR代理在减轻脑肿瘤和手术后的认知下降中发挥作用。