Aging & Longevity News and Discussions

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wjfox
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SuperAger brains contain ‘super neurons’

September 30, 2022

Neurons in an area of the brain responsible for memory (known as the entorhinal cortex) were significantly larger in SuperAgers compared to cognitively average peers, individuals with early-stage Alzheimer’s disease and even individuals 20 to 30 years younger than SuperAgers — who are aged 80 years and older, reports a new Northwestern Medicine study.

These neurons did not harbor tau tangles, a signature hallmark of Alzheimer’s disease.

“The remarkable observation that SuperAgers showed larger neurons than their younger peers may imply that large cells were present from birth and are maintained structurally throughout their lives,” said lead author Tamar Gefen, an assistant professor of psychiatry and behavioral sciences at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine. “We conclude that larger neurons are a biological signature of the SuperAging trajectory.”

The study of SuperAgers with exceptional memory was the first to show that these individuals carry a unique biological signature that comprises larger and healthier neurons in the entorhinal cortex that are relatively void of tau tangles (pathology).

https://news.northwestern.edu/stories/2 ... rons/?fj=1
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Super ager brains contain 'super neurons'
https://medicalxpress.com/news/2022-09- ... urons.html
by Northwestern University
Neurons in an area of the brain responsible for memory (known as the entorhinal cortex) were significantly larger in super agers (80 years and older) compared to cognitively average peers, individuals with early-stage Alzheimer's disease and even individuals 20 to 30 years younger than super agers, reports a new Northwestern Medicine study.

These neurons did not harbor tau tangles, a signature hallmark of Alzheimer's disease.

"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," said lead author Tamar Gefen, an assistant professor of psychiatry and behavioral sciences at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine. "We conclude that larger neurons are a biological signature of the SuperAging trajectory."

The study of super agers with exceptional memory was the first to show that these individuals carry a unique biological signature that comprises larger and healthier neurons in the entorhinal cortex that are relatively void of tau tangles (pathology).

The study will be published Sept. 30 in The Journal of Neuroscience.

The Northwestern Super Aging Research Program studies unique individuals known as super agers, who are 80+ year-olds who show exceptional memory at least as good as individuals 20 to 30 years their junior.
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weatheriscool wrote: Mon Oct 03, 2022 2:35 am Super ager brains contain 'super neurons'
https://medicalxpress.com/news/2022-09- ... urons.html
by Northwestern University
Neurons in an area of the brain responsible for memory (known as the entorhinal cortex) were significantly larger in super agers (80 years and older) compared to cognitively average peers, individuals with early-stage Alzheimer's disease and even individuals 20 to 30 years younger than super agers, reports a new Northwestern Medicine study.

These neurons did not harbor tau tangles, a signature hallmark of Alzheimer's disease.

"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," said lead author Tamar Gefen, an assistant professor of psychiatry and behavioral sciences at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine. "We conclude that larger neurons are a biological signature of the SuperAging trajectory."

The study of super agers with exceptional memory was the first to show that these individuals carry a unique biological signature that comprises larger and healthier neurons in the entorhinal cortex that are relatively void of tau tangles (pathology).

The study will be published Sept. 30 in The Journal of Neuroscience.

The Northwestern Super Aging Research Program studies unique individuals known as super agers, who are 80+ year-olds who show exceptional memory at least as good as individuals 20 to 30 years their junior.
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The brain undergoes a great “rewiring” after age 40

September 24, 2022

In a systematic review recently published in the journal Psychophysiology, researchers from Monash University in Australia swept through the scientific literature, seeking to summarize how the connectivity of the human brain changes over our lifetimes. The gathered evidence suggests that in the fifth decade of life (that is, after a person turns 40), the brain starts to undergo a radical “rewiring” that results in diverse networks becoming more integrated and connected over the ensuing decades, with accompanying effects on cognition.

[...]

Early on, in our teenage and young adult years, the brain seems to have numerous, partitioned networks with high levels of inner connectivity, reflecting the ability for specialized processing to occur. That makes sense, as this is the time when we are learning how to play sports, speak languages, and develop talents. Around our mid-40s, however, that starts to change. Instead, the brain begins becoming less connected within those separate networks and more connected globally across networks. By the time we reach our 80s, the brain tends to be less regionally specialized and instead broadly connected and integrated.

[...]

But the news isn’t all bad for the aging brain. “Tasks relying on predominantly automatic or well-practiced processes are less impacted by age or may even increase slightly across the lifespan, such as vocabulary and general knowledge,” the authors wrote.

https://bigthink.com/neuropsych/great-b ... er-age-40/
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To know is essentially the same as not knowing. The only thing that occurs is the rearrangement of atoms in your brain.
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wjfox wrote: Thu Dec 01, 2022 3:06 pm
I noticed that it stopped at mere millennia. If science progresses to that point, outside of certain cataclysmic events, there's no reason why our life spans couldn't extend into the billions or even trillions of years. I want my death to be caused more or less by sheer entropy so far flung in the future all the visible light from other stars will have long since winked out of view. Just some Dyson sphere colony around one of the last stars in the universe. And perhaps even outlasting that burning up its dead remnants as fuel for millions of years more.

And even that hypothetical is discounting the possibility we exist in a multiverse and may one day discover a way to jump ship into a younger universe. For some reason people never seem to contemplate life lasting that long. Even in the most fantastical sci-fi and fantasy settings the oldest characters are a few thousand years maybe. I'd love to see more speculative fiction about what life might be like if we can live into the billions or trillions.
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Vakanai wrote: Fri Dec 02, 2022 3:14 pm
I noticed that it stopped at mere millennia.
For some reason, Twitter's poll setups are incredibly restrictive. Maximum four options, each with 25 character limit. I would like to have added more.
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