People with ageless brains
Specialists devote a lot of time and effort to the study of pathological processes occurring in the brains of elderly people suffering from dementia. However, researchers at Northwestern University, working under the leadership of Emily Rogalski, decided to go the other way and understand what is happening in the brains of elderly people who have preserved excellent memory, and, to begin with, to find out whether such "cognitive super-old people" actually exist.
In order to get into the coveted group of "super-old people", people aged 80 years and older when performing memorization tasks had to get the same or more points than people aged 50-65 years get. As a result, only 10% (12 people) of all applicants who believed that they had exceptional memory were selected. The two control groups included 10 elderly people (average age – 83.1 years), whose memory corresponded to age norms, and 14 people aged 50-65 years (average age – 57.9 years)
The result of the study was confirmation of the existence of an elite group of people aged 80 and older, whose memory is not inferior to the memory of people 20-30 years younger than them. The results of three-dimensional magnetic resonance imaging of the brain of such elderly people also demonstrated that their brain looks 20-30 years younger than its biological age, while one of its regions is larger than a similar region of the brain of people aged 50-65 years (called the middle-aged group in the study).
Scientists were struck by the striking difference between the cerebral cortex of "cognitive super-old people" and ordinary people aged 80 years and older – it was much thicker and practically did not differ from the cerebral cortex of participants in the middle-aged group.
The cortex (gray matter) is the surface layer of the brain, which plays an important role in memory, attention and thinking abilities. The cortex consists of neuronal bodies, so changing its thickness makes it possible to estimate the number of preserved nerve cells, the death of which is a normal component of aging.
Another surprising observation turned out to be that the anterior part of the cingulate gyrus located deep in the brain tissue of "cognitive super-old people" is even thicker than the corresponding brain region in 50-65-year-olds. The anterior part of the cingulate gyrus provides mindfulness, which contributes to a better memory. Perhaps this is the key to the exceptional memory of "super-old people".
Most of the "super-old men" who took part in the study plan to donate their brains posthumously for scientific research. Scientists hope that studying this unique material will help them develop methods for preserving memory and treating diseases such as Alzheimer's disease.
Article by Harrison et al. Superior Memory and Higher Cortical Volumes in Unusually Successful Cognitive Aging is published in the Journal of the International Neuropsychological Society.
Evgeniya Ryabtseva
Portal "Eternal youth" http://vechnayamolodost.ru based on the materials of Northwestern University:
Secrets of 'SuperAger' Brains: Elderly Super-Agers Have Brains That Look and Act Decades Younger Than Their Age.
21.08.2012