A decades-long study of SuperAgers is shining new light on this rare group of individuals.
A “SuperAger” is someone who is at least 80 years old but has the memory recall of someone at least two or three decades younger.
Newly published findings from the Mesulam Center for Cognitive Neurology and Alzheimer’s Disease at the Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine are providing more insight into what makes SuperAgers unique.
Tamar Gefen, a co-author of the analysis and an associate professor of psychiatry and behavioral sciences at the Feinberg School, says participants in the study all appear to share a spirit of connection.
“I don’t know if it’s necessarily social connections, it’s just connections in general,” Gefen said, per NBC News.
“There are people who are connected to the land, there are people who are connected to their ancestry, people who are connected to their grandchildren, who are connected to their art.”
However, Gefen says that genetics also seems to play a role.
“My interest is, are there genes that SuperAgers harbor that can actually protect them against getting Alzheimer’s disease?” she said. “And is there a gene, let’s say that’s related to the immune system, that is over-expressed in SuperAgers that can be manipulated to then help individuals protect themselves?”
So far, Gefen and colleagues have autopsied nearly 80 SuperAger brains. Compared to more neurotypical peers, the SuperAgers have a lot fewer tau tangles, one of the hallmarks of Alzheimer’s disease.
Notably, however, says Gefen, the amount of amyloid or plaque, also linked to Alzheimer’s, does not appear to differ significantly between the two groups.
The researchers also noted that SuperAgers tend to have larger entorhinal neurons. These are types of nerve cells that are instrumental to memory. They also possess more von Economo neurons, nerve cells linked to social behavior.
“Our guess is that [SuperAgers] are probably born with these kinds of structural protections,” Gefen said. “But we’re now going really deep into the molecular mechanisms of the cell in order to figure out what is keeping that cell strong.”