Special brain traits may shield ‘SuperAgers’ from dementia

These seniors are having a moment.

Life expectancy in the US hovers around 78.4 years — there’s a special group of people who surpass this mark with flying colors. The retirees, known as “SuperAgers,” exhibit the memory and cognitive abilities of people in middle age.

A new report out of Northwestern University reveals unique traits of SuperAger brains that appear to shield them from dementia.

“Our findings show that exceptional memory in old age is not only possible but is linked to a distinct neurobiological profile,” said Dr. Sandra Weintraub, corresponding author of a new paper summarizing the findings.

“This opens the door to new interventions aimed at preserving brain health well into the later decades of life.”

Northwestern’s SuperAger program began over 25 years ago. To qualify, individuals must be over 80, cognitively healthy and actively engaged in life.

SuperAgers are generally very social with meaningful relationships.

Some 290 enrollees have been studied since 2000. Of this group, 79 allowed Northwestern scientists to autopsy their brains after death.

Researchers reported that SuperAger brains tend not to have amyloid plaques and tau tangles, two hallmarks of Alzheimer’s disease, or if they do have them, they’re not at a level that would cause memory problems.

“What we realized is there are two mechanisms that lead someone to become a SuperAger,” said Weintraub, a professor of psychiatry and behavioral sciences and neurology at Northwestern’s Feinberg School of Medicine.

“One is resistance: they don’t make the plaques and tangles,” she added. “Two is resilience: they make them, but they don’t do anything to their brains.”

SuperAgers didn’t exhibit significant thinning in their cerebral cortex, the brain’s outermost layer. They even had a thicker anterior cingulate cortex than younger adults.

The cortex is responsible for emotional regulation and cognitive functions such as attention, error detection and decision-making.

SuperAgers also boast more von economo neurons (specialized cells associated with fast, intuitive social judgments), larger entorhinal neurons (crucial for memory) and less activated microglia (immune cells) compared to their peers.

These brain features could be the reason why SuperAgers scored at least nine out of 15 on a test that requires recalling a list of words after some time has passed.

These conclusions will be published in Alzheimer’s & Dementia: The Journal of the Alzheimer’s Association.

While the Northwestern scientists learned a lot about SuperAger brains, a definitive answer on how to prevent Alzheimer’s disease is still elusive.

“Wish I had the answer, wish I’d be out of work,” research co-author Tamar Gefen, an associate professor of psychiatry and behavioral sciences at Feinberg, told The Post.

“Some possibilities: genetics (both heritable and polygenic — meaning that genes interact with each other within a single person), personal immunity and, of course, the random events (think: biologic, psychologic, environmental stress) that occur in a lifetime,” added Gefen, director of Feinberg’s Laboratory for Translational Neuropsychology.

She pointed to The Lancet Commission’s identification of 14 modifiable risk factors for dementia.

Researchers suggest addressing these behaviors to reduce the risk of developing dementia — low levels of education, traumatic brain injury, physical inactivity, smoking, excessive alcohol consumption, diabetes, obesity, high blood pressure, depression, hearing loss, social isolation, air pollution, high LDL cholesterol and untreated vision loss.

Alzheimer’s is the most common form of dementia, but it is not the only type.