Aug. 16 at 6:20 PM
$PRTA
A study that began in the year 2000 is finally paying off. Northwestern University's SuperAger program has been in the works for over 25 years, and a new report in the Journal of the Alzheimer's Association is detailing what the group has found.
The brain — particularly the cerebral cortex — naturally thins as a person ages, but Northwestern's report shows that may happen less quickly in some people than in others. "It appears that cortical thinning is unavoidable," the report states, "but that it is probably much slower in superagers."
Further, researchers reported that superagers' brains tend to develop few or zero amyloid plaques and tau tangles, which are two tell-tale signs of Alzheimer's disease. While no specific cause has been determined, researchers believe they're a bit closer to understanding dementia.
