Secrets of "SuperAgers" who possess brains as sharp as people 20 to 30 years younger

 

Secrets of "SuperAgers" who possess brains as sharp as people 20 to 30 years younger

 

Learning has always come easy for 85-year-old Carol Siegler. At a young age, she taught herself to spell and play piano. She graduated from high school at 16 and immediately went to college. She got her pilot’s license at age 23. At 82, Siegler won the American Crossword Puzzle Tournament for her age group. She continues to volunteer and work out regularly.   Siegler is a cognitive “SuperAger,” possessing a brain as sharp as someone 20 to 30 years younger. She is part of an elite group enrolled in the Northwestern SuperAging Research Program, which has been studying seniors with superior memories for 14 years.   To be a SuperAger, a person must be over 80 and undergo extensive cognitive testing and have scans of their brain taken annually. They’re accepted only if their memory is as good as or better than those of cognitively normal people in their 50s and 60s.   Studies have found that SuperAger brains are different in a number of ways.  For one, the cortex – responsible for thinking, decision-making and memory – remains much thicker and shrinks more slowly than those of people in their 50s and 60s.   Postmortem studies of SuperAger brains have also found bigger, healthier cells in the entorhinal cortex that have direct connections to another key memory center: the hippocampus. Compared with the brains of their cognitively healthy peers, SuperAger brains also have fewer tau tangles – a sign of Alzheimer’s and other dementias.   SuperAgers are eager to be in environments good for the brain, challenging themselves often by reading or learning. They are also very social, often volunteering in their communities, like Siegler.   Although we can’t all qualify to be SuperAgers, we can all take a cue from them and keep our brains healthy and engaged by staying social and challenging ourselves every day.