Youthful Memory Capacity in Old Brains: Anatomic and Genetic Clues from the Northwestern SuperAging Project

• Published in: Journal of cognitive neuroscience Vol. 25; no. 1; pp. 29 - 36
• Main Authors: Rogalski, Emily J., Gefen, Tamar, Shi, Junzi, Samimi, Mehrnoosh, Bigio, Eileen, Weintraub, Sandra, Geula, Changiz, Mesulam, M.-Marsel
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: One Rogers Street, Cambridge, MA 02142-1209, USA MIT Press 01.01.2013; MIT Press Journals, The
• Subjects: Adult; Adults; Age Factors; Aged; Aged, 80 and over; Aging - physiology; Alleles; Apolipoprotein E4 - genetics; Brain - anatomy & histology; Brain - cytology; Brain - pathology; Brain - physiology; Female; Gyrus Cinguli - anatomy & histology; Gyrus Cinguli - cytology; Gyrus Cinguli - pathology; Gyrus Cinguli - physiology; Humans; Magnetic Resonance Imaging; Male; Memory; Memory, Episodic; Middle Aged; Neurology; Neurons; Neuropsychological Tests; Neurosciences; Oldest old people
• ISSN: 0898-929X; 1530-8898; 1530-8898
• DOI: 10.1162/jocn_a_00300

The Northwestern University SuperAging Project recruits community dwellers over the age of 80 who have unusually high performance on tests of episodic memory. In a previous report, a small cohort of SuperAgers was found to have higher cortical thickness on structural MRI than a group of age-matched but cognitively average peers. SuperAgers also displayed a patch of ACC where cortical thickness was higher than in 50- to 60-year-old younger cognitively healthy adults. In additional analyses, some SuperAgers had unusually low densities of age-related Alzheimer pathology and unusually high numbers of von Economo neurons in the anterior cingulate gyrus. SuperAgers were also found to have a lower frequency of the ɛ4 allele of apolipoprotein E than the general population. These preliminary results show that above-average memory capacity can be encountered in advanced age. They also offer clues to potential biological factors that may promote resistance to age-related involutional changes in the structure and function of the brain.