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

The SuperAging Research team identified a potential “brain signature” for super agers: They found that the anterior cingulate cortex, which impacts thinking, memory and decision-making, is thicker in super agers — sometimes thicker even than it is in most people in their 50s and 60s. In fact, in some super agers, the brain regions linked to memory

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“Super ager” is used to describe someone over 80 with an exceptional memory — one at least as good as the memories of people who are 20 to 30 years younger.

Cognitive reserve. It’s not that their brains don’t age; it’s that super agers seem to be able to overcome the wear and tear that cognitively average people succumb to: age-related issues like inflammation or clogged blood vessels. In fact, postmortem studies of the brains of super agers reveal that some had the clinical pathology of Alzheimer’s b

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• 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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At 91, Frances Ito packs her schedule with gardening, online tai chi, weekly jam sessions with other musicians, art projects, Bible class via Zoom, volunteering at her church, exercising and moviemaking, which she took up in her late 70s. During the pandemic, Ito discovered the joy of reading, and she finished 20 books (“biographies, nonfiction and... See more

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.

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

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

Lifestyle. This may be the big one. Several clues are starting to emerge that point to parallels between the lifestyles of super agers. Healthy-aging researchers have identified four common habits.

A physically and intellectually active lifestyle.

The willingness or ability to constantly challenge oneself.

An active social life and a wide social netw... See more