People who age gracefully have bigger brain cells than the rest of us, study indicates
People who stay mentally sharp and healthy into their eighties have bigger brain cells, a study suggests.
Our neurons slowly start to shrink as we age, which is why we tend to slow down in our senior years.
But brain cells in so-called ‘super-agers’ are larger than those in people 20 to 30 years younger than them, scientists showed for the first time.
It is not clear if people are born with larger neurons or if they are just more durable.
But the discovery of this unique biological signature could one day open the door to screening programs and treatments for the memory disorder, scientists hope.
Super-agers have the brainpower of those 20-30 years their junior, thanks to neurons in their brain that are larger than average from birth (stock image)
Lead author of the new study Dr Tamar Gefen, from Northwestern University in Chicago, said: ‘To understand how and why people may be resistant to developing Alzheimer’s disease, it is important to closely investigate the postmortem brains of super agers.
‘What makes super agers’ brains unique? How can we harness their biologic traits to help elderly stave off Alzheimer’s disease?’
The scientists cut open the postmortem brains of six super-ager donors to see what makes them unique.
They compared them to a control group of seven average patients of the same age, along with six people in their 50s and 60s, and five individuals with early stages of Alzheimer’s.
They examined the entorhinal cortex, the brain’s memory control center and one of the first spots Alzheimer’s disease affects.
They measured the size of neurons and looked for tau tangles – a type of plaque associated with dementia.
The special neurons appeared to be relatively void of the protein.
Dr Gefen added: ‘The remarkable observation that ‘super-agers’ showed larger neurons than their younger peers may imply that large cells were present from birth and are maintained structurally throughout their lives.
‘We conclude that larger neurons are a biological signature of the super-ager trajectory.’
The findings were published in The Journal of Neuroscience.