Researchers find “super-ager” brains resist cognitive decline

Aug, 2021 - By WMR

A new research was conducted to demonstrate the difference in cognitive decline between the groups of old age people, as it is observed that there are certain super-agers who are more efficient than rest of others.

In human life cycle, old growing age of an individual is considered as one of the critical stage of life due to suffering of bad eye-sight, hair fall, memory loss, burden that eventually led to physical and mental illness. However, every old individual is not similar and acts ordinarily. Rare group of humans known as “Super-agers” could grow up even in older age. It was spotted that these 70-80 year old super-agers perform incredible youthful mental activities, recalling new experience, events, situations irrespective of their age number. Researchers from Society of Nuclear Medicine and Molecular Imaging conducted a study that illustrates the differences in accumulations of toxic protein in the brains of older people suffering cognitive decline compared to older subjects with unexpectedly strong cognitive abilities.

In order to possess evidence behind remarkable vision of super-agers, a survey was conducted where 40 super-agers performed a challenging task called as encoding. Numerous images paired with their respective adjective name were shown to super-agers and other adults with the average age of 25 years. Researchers observed the task and the activity of different areas of the brain during tasks with the help of mild cognitive impairment (MCI) machines. The remarkable results of the activity were perceived. Memory performance of participants between these two age groups was found to be indistinguishable.

Researchers claimed that neural differentiation dispenses gradually during aging in the brain. This leads to shift of neuron group that once responded primarily to face activation for their images. Eventually, it was noticed that the connectivity of neural network in super agers’ brains resembles the brains of young adults more closely. Brain atrophy is found to be common in older adults, whereas not so familiar in super agers. A special training could augment the selectivity of brain regions which may perform as potent catalyst to slow down the neural differentiations in normal aging adults making their brain more like those in super-agers.