US EditionScientists Discover a Key to Staying Mentally Sharp in Old Age
- Published Wednesday in Nature, researchers reported SuperAgers, people aged 80 years or older with exceptional memory, had twice the neurogenesis of other healthy older adults in the hippocampus.
- Founded by Dr. M. Marsel Mesulam, the Northwestern SuperAging Program has tracked people over 80 for 25 years to study exceptional memory, aiming to guide interventions that preserve cognitive resilience and prevent Alzheimer's disease.
- The team examined donated hippocampal tissue from five donor groups and searched for three neuron-development stages, with multiomic single-cell sequencing identifying astrocytes and CA1 neurons as key support-cell types.
- Authors noted findings open doors to interventions, with future studies on diet, exercise, and inflammation to inform targeted therapeutics.
- By contrast, researchers found preclinical cognitive decline donors showed minimal neurogenesis and Alzheimer's disease donors almost none, while Dr. Sandra Weintraub said, `What we realized is there are two mechanisms that lead someone to become a SuperAger.
37 Articles
37 Articles
Researchers uncover secrets of superagers' extraordinary cognitive function
Superagers, 80 and 90-year-olds with extraordinary cognitive function, have been found to have a unique genetic profile that allows their brains to cope with the aging process, producing up to two and a half times more new neurons than their peers.
People with exceptionally sharp minds in their 80s and 90s—known as “SuperAgers”—produce twice as many young neurons as cognitively healthy adults and 2.5 times more than people with Alzheimer's disease…
der Standard AT
der Standard DEIn the brains of particularly healthy old people, many new nerve cells are constantly forming. To a lesser extent, this also applies to other old people.
Superagers' brains have a 'resilience signature,' and it's all about neuron growth
Brains of older adults with super-healthy cognition grow more new neurons than those of their peers, according to a study from UIC, Northwestern University and the University of Washington. Researchers found that the brains of superagers—octogenarians with uncommonly nimble minds—were the most neuronally fertile, while those with Alzheimer's disease had negligible new growth.
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