Individual differences in cognitive aging: the cognitive reserve hypothesis in executive function

The primary objective of this thesis is to understand how life exposure factors like educational attainment modify the effects of brain aging on cognition. Theoretically, a benefit from life exposure factors occurs during the brain’s response to ongoing task demands. Yet, few studies have determined whether education highlights this benefit to the brain during the performance of complex tasks. From three parent studies of cognitively normal older adults, I addressed whether educational attainment protects against brain aging through an alteration of common brain network and executive function relations.

My first objective was to determine whether modular attention networks receive the benefit of educational attainment in relation to executive function. I found some support for this in one of our three datasets. However, I cannot conclude from these data that a general benefit of education extends to attention network organization in support of executive function.

My second objective was to determine whether the connectedness of attention networks receives the benefit of educational attainment to executive function. I found some support for this in one of our three datasets. However, I cannot conclude from these data that a general benefit of education extends to attention network connectedness in support of executive function.

This thesis did not find support for the general benefit of educational attainment on the relationship between measures of attention network organization or attention network regional connectedness and executive function. Nevertheless, I did determine that some processes were robustly protected and associated with educational attainment. My study breaks new ground by showing that educational attainment partially protects later-in life brain and attentional processes as observed in tasks of attention.