Aeronautical expertise and cognitive reserve: protective effects on age-related cognitive decline

Identifying modifiable factors against age-related cognitive decline is a public health priority. Professional expertise requiring sustained cognitive effort may constitute active cognitive reserve, yet its impact on aging trajectories is underexplored. This study examines whether aeronautical expertise, which involves visuospatial working memory, divided attention, and executive functions under time pressure, protects against cognitive decline throughout adulthood. 142 male participants aged 20–85 years were recruited, including 71 military and airline pilots (M=39.69 years, SD=15.11; mean education=17.78 years) and 71 non-pilots (M=44.54 years, SD=15.35; mean education=15.52 years). Groups did not differ significantly in age; education was controlled for in all analyses. Cognitive performance was assessed using the DiaNe battery, measuring verbal memory, attention, working memory, and visuospatial abilities. Group differences, age-performance correlations, and aging breakpoints were examined via non-parametric tests and segmented regression. Pilots showed longer response times on working memory false alarms, consistent with more deliberate error monitoring, and superior performance in visuospatial domains, with large effect sizes in spatial binding (ε2 = .527) and figurative positioning (ε2 = .356), together with faster verbal memory processing speed. Age moderated group differences on working memory, sustained and selective attention, and verbal memory response times, and on vista-space positioning, with pilots showing markedly attenuated age-related slowing relative to non-pilots; the interaction for visuospatial binding did not survive correction for multiple comparisons. Non-pilots showed aging breakpoints between 41 and 69 years; pilots maintained stable trajectories across the observed age range. After Benjamini-Hochberg’s FDR correction, six of 23 comparisons remained significant, all in visuospatial domains or response time measures. Expertise acts as a modifiable cognitive reserve factor, associated with later changes in the cross-sectional age–performance relationship and informing expertise-based approaches to cognitive resilience in aging.