Why is it that some people of a certain age seem to remember everything from what they were doing two decades ago to every Oscar winner since the awards began, while others can’t remember if they took their vitamins and medications this morning? A new study might provide some answers that could help research and treatments in Alzheimer’s disease and other cognitive issues in older adults.
Superagers and Memory
Getting old carries a lot of not-so-fun challenges, such as diminishing eyesight and hearing, aches and pains, and, of course, cognitive decline. But some lucky souls, known as superagers, somehow manage to not only keep their mental acuity sharp, but their brains also actually create new neurons in the hippocampus at a level far higher than other adults – even many who are much younger.
The study of cadaver brains led by the University of Illinois Chicago and published in Nature marked a tremendous breakthrough, according to researchers. “It’s really what we’ve found in their [superagers] brains that’s been so earth-shattering for us,” Northwestern University Clinical Neuropsychologist Sandra Weintraub explained. Superagers’ brains were remarkably resistant to the buildup of protein clumps and tangles related to Alzheimer’s.
“These individuals also have a higher concentration of one specific type of neuron in a critical region of the brain, and exhibit less inflammatory activity in their white matter compared to the general aging population,” noted Science Alert.
Researchers studied the postmortem hippocampal tissue from 38 individuals and divided them into five groups: Cognitively healthy young adults, cognitively healthy older adults, superagers, individuals with mild or early dementia, and those diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease. The study found that superagers had around two-and-a-half times more young neurons than those with Alzheimer’s, and about twice as many as other healthy older adults.
“We’ve always said that SuperAgers show that the aging brain can be biologically active, adaptable, flexible, but we didn’t know why,” said co-author Tamar Gefen, associate professor of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences and a neuropsychologist at Northwestern’s Mesulam Institute for Cognitive Neurology and Alzheimer’s Disease. “This is biological proof that their brains are more plastic, and a real discovery that shows that neurogenesis of young neurons in the hippocampus may be a contributing factor.”
Providing Medical Advances to Treat Alzheimer’s Disease
This study suggests promising future treatments for dementia and Alzheimer’s disease. Two types of brain cells – astrocytes and CA1 neurons – are key to how well memory and cognition remain as the brain ages. “What’s emerging from this study is this idea that SuperAgers are, in general, very distinct,” co-author Changiz Geula, PhD, research professor at the Mesulam Institute, explained. “The genetic programs that support brain cell survival and communication stay on in SuperAgers in these cells, but they’re switched off in Alzheimer’s disease.”
Researchers believe that preserving the excitatory synapses, or the brain’s main sites of memory formation and neuronal communication, may be the new way forward to prevent cognitive decline.
