It’s a Bird… It’s a Plane… It’s SuperAger!

            In 2007, thanks to research at Northwestern’s Cognitive Neurology and Alzheimer’s Disease Center, a new class of humans has been discovered. This class of people are not just any ordinary human beings. Some even say these people are super. In fact, they are known as SuperAgers! According to the Science Daily article, “Superager brains yield new clues to their remarkable memories,” one can be classified as a SuperAger as someone aged 80 and higher with significantly better performing memory than their normal age-matched control group. SuperAgers actually show memory capabilities similar to cognitively healthy adults ages 50 to 60!

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            There are three significant differences seen in the brains of SuperAgers compared to their normal control group according to the same Science Daily article. SuperAgers have a thicker anterior cingulate cortex, which is important for “cognitive control, executive function, conflict resolution, motivation and perseverance.” Another advantage SuperAgers have is the lack of neurofibrillary tangles which are commonly associated with aging and Alzheimer’s disease. These twisted neurofibrils take nutrients away from neurons causing them to die. The third difference seen between SuperAgers and normal agers is the significant increase of von Economo neurons. These neurons “play a critical role in the rapid transmission of behaviorally relevant information related to social interactions, which is how they may relate to better memory capacity” according to Changiz Guela, senior author and research professor at the Cognitive Neurology and Alzheimer's Disease Center.

            Now the real question is how can we use this information to our advantage? The answer is to use this information to determine if one is likely to experience future cognitive impairment. If cognitive impairment can be detected early enough, scientists and doctors would be much more successful in lowering the degree or even hopefully preventing cognitive impairments usually seen with aging. It is common to compare adults with normal cognitive abilities to those with cognitive impairments, but studying SuperAgers also adds so much to the battle against Alzheimer’s and other memory deterioration disease.

Northwestern University. "Superager brains yield new clues to their remarkable memories." ScienceDaily. ScienceDaily, 3 February 2015. <www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2015/02/150203133325.htm>