Does the brain really forget skills permanently if you don’t use them?
In: Biology
Popular Psychology has accepted the use-it-or-lose-it theory as fact; however, there are two variations of this theory: the cognitive reserve hypothesis and the use-dependency theory. [source](https://www.researchgate.net/publication/270876081_The_Use-It-Or-Lose-It_Theory_the_Cognitive_Reserve_Hypothesis_and_the_Use-Dependency_Theory_Methodological_Issues_Previous_Research_Current_Research_and_Future_Perspectives)
You can think of cognitive reserve as your brain’s ability to improvise and find alternate ways of getting a job done. Just like a powerful car that enables you to engage another gear and suddenly accelerate to avoid an obstacle, your brain can change the way it operates and thus make added resources available to cope with challenges. Cognitive reserve is developed by a lifetime of education and curiosity to help your brain better cope with any failures or declines it faces. [source](https://www.health.harvard.edu/mind-and-mood/what-is-cognitive-reserve)
The cognitive reserve hypothesis states that an individual must be relatively cognitively active throughout life (particularly in early life) in order to build up a cognitive reserve to counter cognitive decline in old age. The use-dependency theory asserts that a high level of cognitive activity in later life is sufficient to attenuate or even reverse the cognitive aging process. [source](https://etheses.whiterose.ac.uk/2021/)
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