“Super-Agers” Who Remember Everything at 80 Have These 4 Things in Common, Scientists Discover
Blowing out 100th birthday candles is a life achievement that a majority of us can only dream of. Reaching supercentenarian status is also a high milestone. But becoming a super-ager? Now that’s perhaps the most elite clique among the living. Super-Agers are known to have impeccable memory, better mental health, and more active lifestyles than their younger peers. Interested in joining this secret club? Researchers have just identified four things all Super-Agers have in common.
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What is a “super-ager?”
Northwestern Medicine scientists define “super-agers” as adults older than 80, “who have the memory capacity of individuals who are at least three decades younger.”
Super-agers are “highly social” and have brains that “resist the buildup of Alzheimer’s-related plaques and tangles.”
Conducting brain research of their own, Tufts scientists explained: “The pathology of Alzheimer’s disease described the abnormal buildup of two proteins in the brain—amyloid and tau—which clump together, forming plaques and tangles which are believed to disrupt brain cell function.”
Based on a 2025 report from the Alzheimer’s Association, an estimated 7.2 million Americans are living with Alzheimer’s. It’s believed that one in nine people aged 65 and older has the disease, although it’s known that prevalence increases with age. The association reports that 5.1 percent of people aged 65 to 74 develop Alzheimer’s; that statistic increases nearly sevenfold in people aged 85 and older.
However, super-agers appear to be immune to these rattling statistics.
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Super-Agers have four traits in common.
Over the last 25 years, experts at Northwestern’s Mesulam Center for Cognitive Neurology and Alzheimer’s Disease have studied nearly 300 SuperAgers and autopsied 77 donated SuperAger brains.
Sandra Weintraub, PhD, a professor of psychiatry and behavioral sciences and neurology at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine, called insights from the brain autopsies “earth-shattering” for experts in her field.
While some Super-Ager brains did show clumps of Alzheimer’s-related proteins, others didn’t have a presence of dementia/Alzheimer’s indicators.
“What we realized is there are two mechanisms that lead someone to become a Super-Ager,” said Weintraub. “One is resistance: they don’t make the plaques and tangles. Two is resilience: they make them, but they don’t do anything to their brains.”
But what they did discover is that super-agers share these four traits:
- Exceptional memory performance: Delayed word recall test results were on par with 50 to 60-year-olds.
- Youthful brain structure: There was “no significant thinning” of the outer layer of their brain. “This crucial region of the brain plays a significant role in integrating information related to decision-making, emotion and motivation,” explained researchers.
- Unique cellular traits: Increased amount of von economo neurons (associated with social behaviors) and larger entorhinal neurons (linked to memory), versus “typical” aging peers.
- Sociability as a common trait: SuperAgers are “highly social” and maintain “strong interpersonal relationships.”
The findings are set to be published in Alzheimer’s & Dementia: The Journal of the Alzheimer’s Association.
However, scientists have yet to pinpoint how a person becomes a Super-Ager. Does it have to do with diet or lifestyle habits? Can it be chalked up to genetics? Do certain medications or environmental factors lower your risk of becoming a Super-Ager? These are all questions experts hope to answer “by identifying biological and behavioral traits” linked to SuperAging.
Researchers also hope to determine new strategies that boost cognitive resilience, as well as delay or prevent dementia and other cognitive impairment diseases.
“Our findings show that exceptional memory in old age is not only possible but is linked to a distinct neurobiological profile. This opens the door to new interventions aimed at preserving brain health well into the later decades of life,” concluded Weintraub.