SuperAgers : do octogenarians with exceptional memory hold the key to healthy aging?

Abstract

That older relative who stays preternaturally sharp long into their 80's or 90's may hold within their skull the secret to understanding how we lose, and keep, our memories. There are many different ways of aging successfully, but a growing group of scientists at Northwestern university and elsewhere are zeroing in on why some people keep the recall you'd expect of a middle-ager well into their 9th and 10th decades. The scientists do everything they can to get to know these the owners of these brains -- their abilities, their genes, and the stories of their lives -- then, when they die, dissect the brains themselves. Will the craniums of these successful "SuperAgers" give science some leverage in the battle against dementia, or even against aging itself?