A new study published in Nature reports that “superagers,” those old folks with unusually sharp memory, have roughly twice as many developing brain cells as regular people.
Led by researchers at the University of Illinois Chicago, and as reported by the New York Times, the study looked at 38 postmortem human brains from a mixed set of young adults, older adults, individuals with preclinical Alzheimer’s pathology, patients diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease, and superagers between 86 and 100 years old. The scientists analyzed nearly 356,000 individual nuclei from the hippocampus, the portion of the brain that handles memory.
While scientists have been debating for decades whether adults could even create new neurons at all, this new research found clear markers of stem cells, neuroblasts, and immature neurons in adult brains. The only difference was the scale at which it was developing them.
What Makes Superagers’ Brains Different?
Superagers showed about double the level of neurogenesis, a.k.a. the ability to generate new neurons, compared to healthy older adults. People with Alzheimer’s have a noticeable reduction in immature neurons, and those with the early pathological signs of Alzheimer’s had small signs of molecular breakdowns in the system that supports neuron growth.
Analysis also showed that Superagers had heightened activity in genes related to a variety of factors related to healthy brain function, including brain-derived neurotrophic factor, a protein that promotes the survival, growth, and maintenance of neurons in the hippocampus and cortex.
All of this adds weight to the idea that cognitive decline isn’t an inevitability. Aging brains can remain active and adaptable; it all just depends on how well it sustains neuron production in the hippocampus.
A lot more work is needed to understand the brains of Superagers and what, if anything, can be done to ensure continued neuron production well into old age. This could lead to the development of therapies aimed at boosting cognitive function and slowing Alzheimer’s progression. There be like that once seemed unfeasible, but not so much anymore, now that we’re getting a clearer idea that, according to the study at least, the brain can be more productive in old age than we once thought.
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