STAT – Some octogenarians have exceptionally sharp memories, even sharper than people who are decades younger. A new analysis of their brains could help explain why.
Researchers autopsied the brains of superagers — individuals over 80 who have exceptional memories — and detailed their findings in a paper published Thursday.
They found distinct anatomical differences between superagers and their neurotypical counterparts, including resistance to plaques and tangles associated with Alzheimer’s disease.
“This is a really unique population that we should be studying,” said Sofiya Milman, a geneticist at Albert Einstein College of Medicine who was not involved in the work. “These are the people who may actually hold the key for us to understand what protects people from Alzheimer’s.”
Superagers defy the expectation that cognitive decline is an inevitable part of aging. Previous research has established that their brains have notable characteristics, including slower atrophy of mass.
But a better understanding of the genetics and molecular mechanisms that contribute to superagers’ memory capacity could help develop new treatments. The paper, outside experts say, helps pave the way in doing so.
Since 2000, researchers at Northwestern University have recruited 290 superagers; all scored significantly higher than their neurotypical peers on a delayed word recall test. The scientists have analyzed the superagers’ lifestyles and autopsied nearly 80 of their brains.
The paper did not identify behaviors like healthy eating, exercising, or not smoking or drinking as more common among superagers than their neurotypical peers. But it did link memory preservation to certain anatomical and molecular characteristics of the brain and nervous system.
A key finding was that the brains of superagers either resisted or were resilient to the buildup of amyloid plaques and tau tangles. When these get lodged into the hippocampus — the part of the brain involved in memory formation — they can cause amnesia and memory disorders like Alzheimer’s disease, according to Tamar Devora Gefen, a co-author and neuropsychologist at Northwestern’s Feinberg School of Medicine.
