Informational complexity as a neural marker of cognitive reserve

In Alzheimer's disease (AD), a mismatch between neurological damage and cognitive functioning often is attributed to individual differences in cognitive reserve. Understanding the neural mechanisms of cognitive reserve, which may differ across individuals, could help to assess the therapeutic effectiveness of interventions in AD. Here, 38 elderly participants performed a sustained attention task during high-density EEG while alert and drowsy. We defined cognitive reserve operationally as the ability to maintain task performance under drowsiness, with less impairment indicating higher reserve. Investigating performance variations during the active management of neural challenges offers a novel approach to studying cognitive reserve, capturing dynamics that mirror everyday cognitive demand. We relate performance under neural strain to various measures, including informational complexity using the Lempel-Ziv (LZsum) algorithm. We found a significant interaction between arousal and performance: LZsum values increased in high performers when drowsy but decreased in low performers. This effect was most pronounced in the frontal and central areas. These findings suggest LZsum reflects a compensatory mechanism and has potential as a neural marker of cognitive reserve. Additional structural MRI and network analyses revealed performance-related associations in entorhinal cortex, supramarginal gyrus, and frontoparietal networks, suggesting broader neural correlates of compensatory capacity.