Page 28 - aruba-today-20180224

A28 SCIENCE
Saturday 24 February 2018

Superagers' youthful brains offer clues to keeping sharp

By LAURAN NEERGAARD Another clue: Deeper in
WASHINGTON (AP) — It's the brain, that attention re-
pretty extraordinary for gion is larger in superagers,
people in their 80s and 90s too. And inside, autopsies
to keep the same sharp showed that brain region
memory as someone sev- was packed with unusu-
eral decades younger, and al large, spindly neurons
now scientists are peeking — a special and little un-
into the brains of these "su- derstood type called von
peragers" to uncover their Economo neurons thought
secret. to play a role in social pro-
The work is the flip side of cessing and awareness.
the disappointing hunt for The superagers had four
new drugs to fight or pre- to five times more of those
vent Alzheimer's disease. neurons than the typical
Instead, "why don't we fig- octogenarian, Rogalski
ure out what it is we might said — more even than the
need to do to maximize our average young adult.
memory?" said neurosci- The Northwestern study isn't
entist Emily Rogalski, who the only attempt at unrav-
leads the SuperAging study eling long-lasting memory.
at Northwestern University At the University of Cali-
in Chicago. fornia, Irvine, Dr. Claudia
Parts of the brain shrink with Bill Gurolnick talks with his wife, Peggy Bartelstein, at their home in Northbrook, Ill., on Feb. 20, Kawas studies the oldest-
age, one of the reasons 2018. old, people 90 and above.
why most people experi- Associated Press Some have Alzheimer's.
ence a gradual slowing Some have maintained ex-
of at least some types of one 80 or older. Rogalski's wits about you," exclaimed 50- and 60-year-olds. cellent memory and some
memory late in life, even if team has given a battery Gurolnick, fresh off his It's not clear if they were are in between.
they avoid diseases like Al- of tests to more than 1,000 monthly gin game. born that way. But Rogal- About 40 percent of the
zheimer's. people who thought they'd Rogalski's superagers tend ski's team found another oldest-old who showed no
But it turns out that superag- qualify, and only about to be extroverts and report possible explanation: A su- symptoms of dementia in
ers' brains aren't shrinking 5 percent pass. The key strong social networks, but perager's cortex doesn't life nonetheless have full-
nearly as fast as their peers'. memory challenge: Listen otherwise they come from shrink as fast. Over 18 fledged signs of Alzheim-
And autopsies of the first su- to 15 unrelated words, and all walks of life, making it months, average 80-some- er's disease in their brains
peragers to die during the a half-hour later recall at hard to find a common trait things experienced more at death, Kawas told the
study show they harbor a least nine. That's the norm for brain health. Some went than twice the rate of loss. AAAS meeting.q
lot more of a special kind for 50-year-olds, but the av- to college, some didn't.
of nerve cell in a deep erage 80-year-old recalls Some have high IQs, some Mexican gray wolf
brain region that's impor- five. Some superagers re- are average. She's stud-
told a recent meeting of "It doesn't mean you're any enced enormous trauma, population grows by
tant for attention, Rogalski member them all.
ied people who've experi-
the American Association smarter," stressed super- including a Holocaust survi-
for the Advancement of ager William "Bill" Gurolnick, vor; fitness buffs and smok- 1 animal, survey says
Science. These elite elders who turns 87 next month ers; teetotalers and those
are "more than just an odd- and joined the study two who tout a nightly martini. By SUSAN MONTOYA BRY-
ity or a rarity," said neurosci- years ago. But deep in their brains is AN The annual survey docu-
mented 114 wolves in the
entist Molly Wagster of the Nor can he credit protec- where she's finding com-
National Institute on Ag- tive genes: Gurolnick's fa- pelling hints that somehow, ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. (AP) wild in Arizona and New
— At least one more en-
Mexico. The number re-
ing, which helps fund the ther developed Alzheimer's superagers are more resil-
research. "There's the po- in his 50s. He thinks his own ient against the ravages of dangered Mexican gray flects on-the-ground data
wolf is roaming the Ameri-
collected over the winter
tential for learning an enor- stellar memory is bolstered time.
mous amount and applying by keeping busy. He bikes, Early on, brain scans can Southwest compared along with aerial surveys
it to the rest of us, and even and plays tennis and water showed that a superager's with a year earlier, and done in January and Feb-
to those who may be on volleyball. He stays social cortex — an outer brain U.S. wildlife officials said ruary.
a trajectory for some type through regular lunches layer critical for memory Wednesday that lower sur- The latest figure includes 26
of neurodegenerative dis- and meetings with a men's and other key functions — vival rates among pups are pups that survived through
primarily to blame for the 2017. In 2016, the number
ease." What does it take to group he co-founded. is much thicker than normal
be a superager? A youthful "Absolutely that's a critical for their age. It looks more lack of strong growth in the of surviving pups was near-
brain in the body of some- factor about keeping your like the cortex of healthy population. ly double that.
Officials lamented that the
numbers were not what
they had hoped for and
said they were focused on
improving the genetics of
the wild population as a
way to build more robust
numbers. According to the
survey, there are 22 packs,
with at least 51 wolves in
New Mexico and 63 wolves
in Arizona.q