For some seniors who seem immune to the aging process - a 90-year-old jazz pianist, an 80-year-old Nobel laureate in chemistry, or even the grandfather who seems to remember more than you - new research is hoping to reveal what makes these individuals more resistant to disorders that ravage memories and brain functions.
The research, which is part of a larger ongoing aging study at Northwestern's Cognitive Neurology and Alzheimer's Disease Center, is concerned with identifying the differences a more age-resistant brain has from the average specimen, said Changiz Geula, one of three principal investigators for the study and a research professor of neurology at the center.
"We know that there are many age-related changes that occur in the brain," said Geula. "But the question is, 'Are these normal changes?'"
The study recruited individuals over 80 years of age, a group the study dubbed "super-aged," who were then given a number of psychological tests to assess their memory abilities and cognitive acuity.
Some tests were clear-cut and objective - subjects were read a list of 15 words and asked to recall them immediately and again after 30 minutes, which was designed to test an individual's short-term and long-term memory, said Emily Rogalski, a research assistant professor at the Feinberg School of Medicine.
Other assessments were more subjective and collected data about a person's personality and reaction to different forms of stress.
Based on their results, the subjects were sorted into three groups: those who performed as well as an average 50-year-old would on the same test, those who were average for their age but were stable in their cognitive performance for three years, and those who had achieved a significant accomplishment since turning 80.
The purpose of the final group was to compensate for individuals who don't test well but possess other skills, according to Marsel Mesulam, professor of neurology and psychiatry and a primary investigator alongside Geula.
"There is no overlap (among these groups)," said Mesulam. "We could have a violin virtuoso of 85 who doesn't have good memory scores."
"We are not trying to find the one magic thing that separates these people," said Rogalski, who also mentioned that studies have shown that a person's inability to cope with stress reflects poorly on their cognitive abilities.
Alzheimer's disease was of particular interest to researchers. The disease is caused by the misfolding of certain proteins, which in turn kills off brain cells and disrupts communication within the brain. Current data show that more age-resistant brains showed a modest number of tangles, while the number of tangles increased sharply for brains afflicted with Alzheimer's, said Geula.
The study also looked into the role good genes can have in preventing the onset of certain neurodegenerative diseases. A certain gene, called ApoE4, has been associated with a higher risk of developing Alzheimer's and raises the question of whether that gene is underrepresented in more age-resistant individuals. More age-resistant individuals may also have genes that promote overall cell longevity, according to Geula.
The Feinberg study is still very early in development and is providing the scientific community with hints rather than answers.
"We want to find associations with these better-than-average aging brains with brain imagery, brain anatomy, lifestyle patterns and genetics," Mesulam said. "This is an initial exploration of what is going to be a very long journey to determine unusually successful aging."
g-thippeswamy@u.northwestern.edu
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