Quick Hits
Daily brief research updates from the cognitive sciences
SuperAgers are those who live long, over 80, but retain their cognitive functions including a healthy functioning memory and seem to avoid neurodegenerative disorders such as Alzheimer’s.
Who wouldn’t want to know what is happening in their brains. But there are many questions. Is it their brain, or lifestyle, or the luck of the genetic lottery?
Well researchers around Caren Nassif of Northwestern University in the USA may have part of the answer. And this part lies in the size of neurons in specific regions of the brain.
To do this they analysed the donated brains of six SuperAgers, seven cognitively average elderly individuals, six young individuals, and also five individuals with early-stage Alzheimer’s.
They looked specifically at a part of the brain called the etorhinal cortex – this part is particularly important for the formation of memories which is why the researchers focused on this area. What they found is that this region had been spared from so-called tau tangles. These are clumps of protein which are markers of Alzheimer’s.
That is no surprise, but they noticed something that was surprising.
This was that the neurons in this particular region – actually in one of the six layers of brain cells in this region, layer two, to be precise – were larger.
Why is this important? Firstly, layer two of the layers of brain cells is the one that connects with other parts of the brain. But this size was not only larger than those with Alzheimer’s, or those of similar age but larger than those who were much younger also.
This suggests that this is not just healthy aging but a structural feature that seems more immune to aging. Avoiding those tau tangles is one thing because they become toxic and damage neurons is one thing but having big functional neurons is another thing.
So, all in, SuperAgers seem to have structural differences that enable their brains to remain highly functional in old age. In this particular case we now know what it is, and in what specific region. Whether this is in other region is an open question.
However, for those who aren’t SuperAgers, probably most of us, a healthy lifestyle will still help to avoid the ravages of aging.
Andy Habermacher
Andy is author of leading brains Review, Neuroleadership, and multiple other books. He has been intensively involved in writing and research into neuroleadership and is considered one of Europe’s leading experts. He is also a well-known public speaker, speaking on the brain and human behaviour.
Andy is also a masters athlete (middle distance running) and competes regularly at international competitions (and holds a few national records in his age category).
References
Caren Nassif, Allegra Kawles, Ivan Ayala, et al.
Integrity of neuronal size in the entorhinal cortex is a biologic substrate of exceptional cognitive aging.
The Journal of Neuroscience, 2022; JN-RM-0679-22
DOI: 10.1523/JNEUROSCI.0679-22.2022
More Quick Hits
Your brain on near-death experiences
Near-death experiences have fascinated many people ever since they have been reported. And these experiences guide our view of how we die: the memories of your life passing in front of your eyes, the tunnel of light, the floating movement towards a bright light....
Social networks grow your brain
The headline is a bit “click baity” but it is what a group of researchers found. To be more specific they found in macaques (cute monkeys) in the wild that having more grooming partners grew different regions of the brain. Grooming is the primate version of having a...
What do creative brains look like?
We’d probably all be happy to be a bit more creative — though research into our own opinions show that many people do actually consider themselves to be above average in creativity. An obvious self-bias. This is where scientists who study creativity come in and find...
New gender biases discovered
There have been many studies on gender biases, and I have followed, written, and spoken about many of these biases over the years (over a decade actually) but two studies have just come out that caught my eye. One out of New York University focused on gender natural...
Growth of your brain over your life
So, we all know that our brain grows very quickly as babies and children and then after a certain age, younger than some of us may like to think, there begins a slow decline. But precisely what and how is the question. Well, this is a question that an international...
How to reduce loneliness
I have reported multiple times on loneliness during the pandemic – mostly because interest and research into loneliness has taken a large uptick. I have also reported on how to combat this and was happy to see that a piece of research just out proved what I had...