Celebrating What's Right With Aging: Inside the Minds of Super Agers

Fewer than 10 percent of the individuals who sign up to participate in her studies have the memory and mental capacity to meet the scientific criteria for being a super ager, she says.

You can find Vernon Smith hard at work at his computer by 7:30 each morning, cranking out 10 solid hours of writing and researching every day.

His job is incredibly demanding — he is currently on the faculty of both the business and law schools at Chapman University. But the hard work pays off: Smith’s research is consistently ranked as the most-cit... See more

Memory peaks between the ages of 30 and 40. Overall brain volume begins to atrophy in our 50s, particularly in the areas of the brain linked to complex thought processes and learning. Changing hormones, deteriorating blood vessels and difficulty managing blood glucose — the brain’s primary fuel — lead us toward the cognitive decline associated with... See more

• Super ager brains have supersize memory cells. The neurons around the brain responsible for memory are significantly larger in super agers than they are in their peers and even in individuals 20 to 30 years younger. These neurons also tend to be free of so-called tau tangles, the webs of proteins that collect inside neurons in the brains of people

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