Cognitive reserve and clinical expression of Alzheimer's disease: evidence and implications for brain PET imaging

Cognitive reserve (CR) refers to the hypothesized capacity of an adult brain to cope with brain damage in order to minimize symptomatology. The present review is focused on the contribution of brain PET in the understanding of the influence of CR on the disassociation between cognition and degree of Alzheimer's disease (AD) pathology. Theories for the explanation CR-related mechanism as well as PET imaging evidence for the existence of CR are described. Moreover functional imaging studies investigating specific networks for CR both in healthy subjects and AD patients are discussed. Finally implications for amyloid PET imaging are presented