The Apolipoprotein E (APOE) ε4 allele is a major genetic risk factor for pathological cognitive development in old age. Potentially relevant in this regard, the cognitive reserve concept (Stern, 2002; Stern et al., 2020) postulates that early and lifelong experiences, including educational and occupational attainment, and leisure activities throughout the lifespan, determine the individual’s capacity to cope with cognitive pathologies. However, research addressing different inter-individual difference characteristics and factors across the lifespan that modulate cognitive reserve accumulation pathways and their specific role for dealing with APOE-related pathological cognitive development is still in its infancy. It is indispensable to take up a fine-grained lifespan perspective to understand in depth the interplay of the individual’s pathways of cognitive reserve accumulation with contextual factors and major life events emerging during an individual’s life and the role of those mechanisms for the individual’s capacity to deal with APOE-related pathological cognitive development in later life and for trajectories in related outcomes such as well-being during this pathological stage.
To address this fundamental open issue in cognitive aging and lifespan research, in three subprojects this research project will exploit available large-scale longitudinal interdisciplinary datasets using advanced modeling techniques such as sequence analyses, latent transition analyses, growth curve models, mixed-effects models, joint models, and dynamic structural equation modeling approaches.
- In subproject A we will investigate how contextual factors, such as demographic, economic, and societal characteristics of the surrounding environments in which an individual grew up and spent his or her adulthood, influence in detail the pathways of cognitive reserve accumulation and how this finally affects the individual’s capacity to deal with APOE-related pathological cognitive development in later life. A special focus will be given on differential effects depending on the contextual level (country versus federal state / region versus neighborhood) and the specific life phase in which the respective environment might affect individual trajectories (early and late childhood, adolescence, young adulthood, early and late midlife, late and very late adulthood).
- In subproject B we will examine how major life events in the individual’s life history influence in detail the pathways of cognitive reserve accumulation and how this finally affects the individual’s capacity to deal with APOE-related pathological cognitive development in later life. A detailed focus will be taken on differential effects depending on the type of event (positive versus negative) and the specific life phase in which the respective event period might affect individual trajectories.
- In subproject C we will investigate how the detailed interplay of the fine-grained pathways of cognitive reserve accumulation with contextual factors and major life events emerging during an individual’s life influence in detail the trajectories in related outcomes such as well-being when facing APOE-related pathological cognitive development in later life. A particular focus will be given on differential effects depending on the contextual level, the type of event, and the specific life phase in which the respective environment and the respective life event period might affect individual trajectories.
The present interdisciplinary proposal has huge conceptual significance as it will help to refine current lifespan models of cognitive reserve in particular and gerontological research in general. Moreover, it will be of highest significance for social prevention policies and may lay the ground for designing evidence-based intervention programs for our aging societies.
Important link
Project page on the SNSF website
