Salas Natalia, Escobar Josefina, Huepe David
Facultad de Educación, Psicología y Familia, Universidad Finis Terrae, Santiago, Chile.
Center for Social and Cognitive Neuroscience, School of Psychology, Universidad Adolfo Ibáñez, Santiago, Chile.
Front Neurol. 2021 Nov 19;12:599378. doi: 10.3389/fneur.2021.599378. eCollection 2021.
The concept of cognitive reserve -CR- postulates two forms that prevent cognitive impairment: neural reserve and neural compensation. Both have been primarily linked to the protective role played by genetic factors, educational level, occupation or socioeconomic status. Though it is true that it has been related to executive functions, so far very little attention has been paid to its predictive capacity with other variables more related to social cognition and psychosocial adaptation. Considering socially vulnerable contexts with reduced cultural capital and educational levels, the neural reserve function would be the most relevant and best predictor of aspects related to social cognition and executive functions. We suggest that variables such as fluid and crystallized intelligence influence social cognition and executive functions. This study included a sample of 27 participants over 60 years old from varied contexts of social vulnerability. The procedure included data collection using various cognitive measures. Results show that elderly people with high intelligence-mainly fluid intelligence-have better executive functions, emotional recognition and theory of mind. These results focus on cognitive reserve and its importance because they show that elderly people in vulnerable contexts who strengthen these aspects protect themselves against the deterioration of cognitive skills. This study is the first preliminary research to present a relationship between cognitive reserve and social cognition factors in elderly subjects. Fluid intelligence functions as a highly related factor to protect the performance of executive functions, along with other social-cognitive factors relevant to facilitating the conditions of social adaptation.
认知储备（CR）的概念假设存在两种预防认知障碍的形式：神经储备和神经补偿。两者主要都与遗传因素、教育水平、职业或社会经济地位所起的保护作用有关。尽管它确实与执行功能有关，但到目前为止，很少有人关注其与其他与社会认知和心理社会适应更相关的变量的预测能力。考虑到文化资本和教育水平较低的社会弱势群体背景，神经储备功能将是与社会认知和执行功能相关方面最相关且最佳的预测指标。我们认为，诸如流体智力和晶体智力等变量会影响社会认知和执行功能。本研究纳入了27名60岁以上来自不同社会弱势群体背景的参与者样本。研究程序包括使用各种认知测量方法收集数据。结果表明，智力水平高的老年人——主要是流体智力高的老年人——具有更好的执行功能、情绪识别能力和心理理论。这些结果聚焦于认知储备及其重要性，因为它们表明，处于弱势背景的老年人若强化这些方面，就能保护自己免受认知技能衰退的影响。本研究是第一项初步研究，呈现了老年受试者认知储备与社会认知因素之间的关系。流体智力作为一个高度相关的因素，与其他有助于促进社会适应条件的社会认知因素一起，对保护执行功能的表现发挥作用。
