Physiological Reserve
Physiological reserve generally refers to capacity available beyond usual demands. Discussing reserve requires specifying the organ or functional domain and the task or challenge of interest.
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At a glance
How much capacity remains beyond everyday needs?
Physiological reserve generally refers to capacity available beyond usual demands. Discussing reserve requires specifying the organ or functional domain and the task or challenge of interest.
Reserve and resilience are related. Reserve concerns available capacity; resilience also concerns performance after a disturbance.
Capacity beyond everyday demand
Physical-resilience research discusses physiological reserve as capacity that may contribute to a response to a stressor. Reserve is one part of this account, not a direct observation of recovery itself.[1]
Capacity and performance
Available capacity and what happens after a disturbance are related questions. The distinction helps explain why reserve and resilience are not interchangeable terms.[1]
In geriatric care, tests of reserve can help estimate recovery potential. Repeated observations around an actual health stressor address a different question: how a function changes over time. The stressor itself must also be described.[3]
Name the capacity under discussion
Cognitive aging research distinguishes cognitive reserve, brain reserve and brain maintenance. This vocabulary helps within its domain; it should not be substituted for a measure of exercise capacity or for whole-body physiological reserve.[4]
Avoid the single-battery metaphor
Reserve needs to be discussed and measured for a specified function. These concepts and studies help readers identify appropriate questions and observation methods.
References
- Heather E. Whitson, Wei Duan-Porter, Kenneth E. Schmader, Miriam C. Morey, Harvey J. Cohen, Cathleen S. Colón-Emeric (2016). Physical Resilience in Older Adults: Systematic Review and Development of an Emerging Construct. The Journals of Gerontology: Series A. https://doi.org/10.1093/gerona/glv202
- Bruce S. McEwen (1998). Protective and damaging effects of stress mediators. New England Journal of Medicine. https://doi.org/10.1056/NEJM199801153380307
- Sanne M. W. Gijzel, Heather E. Whitson, Ingrid A. van de Leemput, Marten Scheffer, Dieneke van Asselt, Jerrald L. Rector, Marcel G. M. Olde Rikkert, René J. F. Melis (2019). Resilience in Clinical Care: Getting a Grip on the Recovery Potential of Older Adults. Journal of the American Geriatrics Society. https://doi.org/10.1111/jgs.16149
- Yaakov Stern, Eider M. Arenaza‐Urquijo, David Bartrés‐Faz, Sylvie Belleville, Marc Cantilon, Gael Chetelat, Michael Ewers, Nicolai Franzmeier, Gerd Kempermann, William S. Kremen, Ozioma Okonkwo, Nikolaos Scarmeas, Anja Soldan, Chinedu Udeh‐Momoh, Michael Valenzuela, Prashanthi Vemuri, Eero Vuoksimaa, and the Reserve, Resilience and Protective Factors PIA Empirical Definitions and Conceptual Frameworks Workgroup (2020). Whitepaper: Defining and investigating cognitive reserve, brain reserve, and brain maintenance. Alzheimer's & Dementia. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jalz.2018.07.219
Publication record
TAP-CON-0005 · v0.3 · English
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