How to maintain cognitive reserve and stay mentally sharp while ageing

Could staying mentally sharp as we grow older be a realistic ambition, rather than an impossible dream?

It certainly can be, provided we develop habits across our lives that support brain function.

As a researcher in cognitive neuroscience and the neuropsychology of ageing, I want to explain how recent scientific progress can help us preserve strong cognitive health as we age.

Why cognitive reserve matters

Research has identified building and preserving cognitive reserve as one of the most effective approaches.

Cognitive reserve is the brain’s capacity to withstand the effects of ageing or neurodegenerative illness without causing substantial loss of function. It has become a key concept in strategies designed to prevent cognitive decline.

In its Dementia prevention, intervention, and care report, updated in 2024, The Lancet stated that tackling 14 modifiable risk factors could prevent or delay 45 per cent of dementia cases.

Those factors include physical inactivity, depression and social isolation.

However, one of the earliest and most important risk factors is a low level of education.

Cognitive reserve goes beyond education

For many years, education was seen as the principal marker of cognitive reserve. It represents sustained exposure to intellectually demanding activities that encourage the development of efficient brain networks.

That perspective is now understood to be incomplete. Cognitive reserve is not set during childhood or early adulthood: it can be developed, sustained and even enhanced throughout life through experiences such as learning, rewarding social relationships and mentally stimulating leisure pursuits.

Examples include learning to play a musical instrument, playing demanding board games such as chess, or volunteering in roles that call for planning and problem-solving abilities.

How cognitive reserve works

Several complementary scientific models explain the mechanisms behind cognitive reserve.

Some concentrate on brain structure, proposing that features including the number of neurons affect how well the brain can tolerate damage. This is the brain reserve model, based on the notion that people born with more neurons may be better equipped to manage the effects of ageing.

Other models suggest that an active lifestyle may limit the impact of brain ageing by improving biological resilience - for instance, the brain’s ability to remain structurally sound and functional over time, with few outward signs of deterioration despite increasing age. This is known as the brain maintenance model.

A third group of models focuses on the brain’s functional adaptability, enabling it to deploy resources in different ways or draw on alternative neural networks to offset age-related losses. This is the cognitive reserve model.

Together, these approaches form a shared conceptual framework distinguishing brain reserve, brain maintenance and cognitive reserve.

Although each model rests on a distinct principle, they complement one another and are supported by empirical evidence.

The cognitive reserve model is still the most extensively investigated, especially because it is associated with modifiable factors including educational attainment and regular involvement in mentally stimulating activities.

Cognitive reserve changes throughout life

This distinction helps to bring research findings into alignment and direct prevention strategies more effectively. Most importantly, it shows that cognitive reserve is not a static characteristic: it changes through interactions with learning and experience, meaning it can be reinforced throughout life.

Recent findings support this evolving view. A team of researchers in Québec, of which I am part, found that structured instruction in memory techniques - including the method of loci, which links each item of information to a familiar location, and mental visualisation, which turns information into images to aid retention - can bring about notable changes in brain activity.

Across different brain areas, researchers recorded a mix of increased and reduced activation, including shifts in activity levels, while participants learned and recalled information. This finding indicates that applying memory strategies enables greater functional flexibility in the brain.

The findings also indicated that, among people with more education, certain regions were activated more selectively during learning and recall, implying that their brains employ more efficient strategies.

Further studies have underlined education’s influence on brain structure and function. Research I carried out with colleagues identified a relationship between years spent in education, grey-matter volume and brain activation during memory tasks. Another study in which I took part found greater flexibility in activation according to task complexity among more educated participants.

Taken together, this research confirms that cognitive reserve can be built through experience and shaped by cognitive training at every age.

Enjoyable ways to stimulate the brain

Along similar lines, the Engage study, led by the Canadian Consortium on Aging and Neurodegeneration, examines the behavioural and neurophysiological effects of cognitively stimulating leisure activities among older adults.

This hybrid intervention brings together formal cognitive training, including memorisation strategies and attention work, with organised leisure activities such as learning music, a second language or video games.

It provides an ecological model - that is, an approach resembling real-life situations that is enjoyable, motivating and likely to encourage lasting participation.

If Engage demonstrates that such natural interventions achieve effects comparable with traditional cognitive training programmes - often repetitive computer-based or paper-based exercises targeting abilities such as memory and concentration - it could reshape efforts to prevent cognitive decline linked to ageing.

Learning a second language

At my NeuroÂge laboratory for the neuropsychology of ageing at the Université du Québec à Trois-Rivières (UQTR), we are running a related project.

Working with Professor Paul John of the Department of Modern Languages and Translation, and Professor Simon Rigoulot of the Department of Psychology, we are investigating how learning English as a second language affects cognition and brain activity in older adults.

Using a protocol combining lessons, tutoring, and cognitive and electroencephalography assessments, the project seeks to record the cognitive and neural advantages of learning that is meaningful, motivating and accessible.

Early results are encouraging, supporting the view that intellectual involvement can produce measurable gains even when it begins later in life.

Maintaining sound cognitive health at any age depends on a combination of interventions that are accessible, motivating and stimulating.

Rather than being fixed, cognitive reserve accumulates over the course of life. Research advances now provide practical tools for healthy ageing, particularly in relation to cognitive health.

Benjamin Boller, Associate Professor of neuropsychology, Université du Québec à Trois-Rivières (UQTR)

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons licence. Read the original article.