The effects of cognitive reserve and apolipoprotein E on healthy cognitive function

Alzheimer's disease research has identified environmental factors that delay the onset of dementia symptoms in the presence of disease processes. The beneficial effects of education, occupational status, and cognitively stimulating lifestyle activities are described through the theory of cognitive reserve, which are the individual differences in the efficient use and differential recruitment of brain networks due to life experience. Normally applied to pathological ageing, cognitive reserve has also been used to predict cognitive function in the face of normal age-related cognitive ageing, with mixed results