Abstract: Previous reviews and analysis of cognitive reserve (CR) studies have focused on neurodegenerative diseases such as Alzheimer's disease and Parkinson's disease, with little coverage of the role of CR in normal ageing. To investigate the role of CR in normal ageing, a review of imaging studies related to CR and brain ageing was presented from different methods of CR construction. First, the relationship between static CR metrics and brain ageing was reviewed. Then, the residual method, a dynamic method of CR construction and its application were presented. Finally, the neuroimaging findings of CR during brain ageing were summarized and discussed, and valuable suggestions for future research in this field were provided.