Overview
- The study finds SuperAgers generate about twice as many immature neurons as typical older adults and roughly 2.5 times as many as people with Alzheimer’s disease.
- In certain measures, SuperAger brains also contained more newly developed neurons than adults in their 30s and 40s, according to the study’s senior author.
- Researchers analyzed about 356,000 cells from donated hippocampal tissue across five groups using multiomic single-cell sequencing.
- Astrocytes and CA1 neurons emerged as key supporters of synaptic signaling in these brains, which also showed markedly fewer tau tangles in the hippocampus.
- Epigenetic switches and master controller gene networks remained active in SuperAgers, suggesting potential drug targets that researchers caution are years from clinical use.