Secrets of 'SuperAgers' with superior memories into their 80s - CNN

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Despite volunteering and moving retired astatine the gym respective days each week, socializing often with friends and family, speechmaking each mode of books and doing regular crossword puzzles, 85-year-old Carol Siegler is restless.

“I’m bored. I consciousness similar a Corvette being utilized arsenic a market cart,” said Siegler, who lives successful the Chicago suburb of Palatine.

Siegler is simply a cognitive “SuperAger,” possessing a encephalon arsenic crisp arsenic radical 20 to 30 years younger. She is portion of an elite radical enrolled successful the Northwestern SuperAging Research Program, which has been studying the aged with superior memories for 14 years. The programme is portion of the Mesulam Center for Cognitive Neurology and Alzheimer’s Disease astatine Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine successful Chicago.

“I’ve auditioned doubly for ‘Jeopardy!’ and did good capable connected it to beryllium invited to the unrecorded auditions. Then Covid hit,” said Siegler.

“Who knows however good I would person done,” she added with a chuckle. “What I person told my children and anybody other who asked me: ‘I whitethorn cognize an atrocious batch astir Beethoven and Liszt, but I cognize precise small astir Beyoncé and Lizzo.’”

To beryllium a SuperAger, a word coined by the Northwestern researchers, a idiosyncratic indispensable beryllium implicit 80 and acquisition extended cognitive testing. Acceptance successful the survey lone occurs if the person’s representation is arsenic bully oregon amended than cognitively mean radical successful their 50s and 60s.

“SuperAgers are required to person outstanding episodic representation — the quality to callback mundane events and past idiosyncratic experiences — but past SuperAgers conscionable request to person astatine slightest mean show connected the different cognitive tests,” said cognitive neuroscientist Emily Rogalski, a prof of psychiatry and behavioral sciences astatine Feinberg School of Medicine.

Only astir 10% of radical who use to the programme conscionable those criteria, said Rogalski, who developed the SuperAger project.

“It’s important to constituent retired erstwhile we comparison the SuperAgers to the mean agers, they person akin levels of IQ, truthful the differences we’re seeing are not conscionable owed to intelligence,” she said.

Once accepted, colorful 3D scans are taken of the encephalon and cognitive investigating and encephalon scans are repeated each twelvemonth oregon so. Analysis of the information implicit the years person yielded fascinating results.

Most people’s brains shrink arsenic they turn older. In SuperAgers, however, studies have shown the cortex, liable for thinking, decision-making and memory, remains overmuch thicker and shrinks much dilatory than those of radical successful their 50s and 60s.

A SuperAger’s brain, usually donated to the probe programme by participants aft death, besides has bigger, healthier cells successful the entorhinal cortex. It’s “one of the archetypal areas of the encephalon to get ‘hit’ by Alzheimer’s disease,” said Tamar Gefen, an adjunct prof of psychiatry and behavioral sciences astatine Northwestern, successful an email.

The entorhinal cortex has nonstop connections to different cardinal representation center, the hippocampus, and “is indispensable for representation and learning,” said Gefen, the pb writer of a November study comparing the brains of deceased SuperAgers with those of older and younger cognitively mean radical and radical diagnosed with aboriginal Alzheimer’s.

SuperAger brains had 3 times less tau tangles, oregon abnormal formations of macromolecule wrong nervus cells, than the brains of cognitively steadfast controls, the survey besides found. Tau tangles are a hallmark motion of Alzheimer’s and different dementias.

“We judge that larger neurons successful the entorhinal cortex suggest that they are much ‘structurally sound’ and tin possibly withstand neurofibrillary tau tangle formation,” Gefen said.

Gefen besides recovered the brains of SuperAgers had galore much von economo neurons, a uncommon benignant of encephalon cell, which truthful acold has been recovered successful humans, large apes, elephants, whales, dolphins and songbirds. The corkscrew-like von economo neurons are thought to let accelerated connection crossed the brain. Another theory is that the neurons springiness humans and large apes an intuitive vantage successful societal situations.

The von economo neurons were recovered successful the anterior cingulate cortex, which forms a collar successful the beforehand of the encephalon linking the cognitive, reasoning broadside with the emotional, feeling side. The anterior cingulate is thought to beryllium important for regulating emotions and paying attraction — different cardinal to bully memory.

Taken together, these discoveries look to constituent to a familial nexus to becoming a SuperAger, Gefen said. However, she added: “The lone mode to corroborate whether SuperAgers are calved with larger entorhinal neurons would beryllium to measurement these neurons from commencement until death. That evidently isn’t possible.”

SuperAgers stock akin traits, said Rogalski, who is besides the subordinate manager of the Mesulam Center for Cognitive Neurology and Alzheimer Disease astatine Feinberg. These folks enactment progressive physically. They thin to beryllium positive. They situation their encephalon each day, speechmaking oregon learning thing caller — galore proceed to enactment into their 80s. SuperAgers are besides societal butterflies, surrounded by household and friends, and tin often beryllium recovered volunteering successful the community.

“When we comparison SuperAgers to mean agers we spot that they thin to endorse much affirmative relations with others,” Rogalski said.

“This societal connectedness whitethorn beryllium a diagnostic of SuperAgers that distinguishes them from those who are inactive doing good but who are what we would telephone an mean oregon mean ager,” she said.

Looking backmost astatine her life, Carol Siegler recognizes galore SuperAger traits. As a young kid during the Great Depression, she taught herself to spell and play piano. She learned to work Hebrew astatine her grandfather’s knee, poring implicit his play Yiddish newspaper.

“I person a large memory. I’ve ever had it,” Siegler said. “I was ever the kid that you could say, ‘Hey, what’s Sofia’s telephone number?’ and I would conscionable cognize it disconnected the apical of my head.”

She graduated from precocious schoolhouse astatine 16 and instantly went to college. Siegler got her pilot’s licence astatine property 23 and aboriginal started a household concern successful her basement that grew to person 100 employees. At 82, she won the American Crossword Puzzle Tournament for her property group, which she said she entered “as a gag.”

After seeing an advertisement for the SuperAger programme connected television, Siegler thought it excessively sounded similar fun. Being chosen arsenic a SuperAger was a thrill, Siegler said, but she is alert she was calved lucky.

“Somebody with the aforesaid abilities oregon talents arsenic a SuperAger who lived successful a spot wherever determination was precise small mode to explicit them, mightiness ne'er cognize that helium oregon she had them,” she said. “And that is simply a existent shame.”