Superagers: Elderly with youthful cognition reveal that social bonds may preserve brain health into the ninth decade and beyond.
Superagers, individuals who maintain exceptional cognitive abilities into their 80s and beyond, have been the focus of extensive research spanning a quarter-century, revealing crucial insights about successful aging and brain function.
David Goldstein, a 91-year-old Holocaust survivor, maintains an active social calendar that exemplifies healthy aging. Every first Monday of the month, he participates in SAG: Seniors Active Group, meeting with fellow elderly men at a local synagogue near Boston. Each Thursday afternoon, he performs timeless melodies from the 1930s and 40s with the Goldtones, the community’s vocal ensemble. Through his involvement with the Boston Holocaust Memorial & Learning Center, he’s educated countless students about his journey escaping Nazi persecution, demonstrating remarkable cognitive reserve.
Michael Thompson, 82, dedicates considerable time to creative projects with neighborhood children in his Boston community and watching the Red Sox play at Fenway Park, conveniently located just around the corner. Mr. Thompson served as a guest relations coordinator at the ballpark for 16 years before retiring when COVID-19 hit (previously, he worked as a creative director in marketing). He still makes frequent visits, three to four times weekly during baseball season, to catch up with old colleagues and fellow baseball enthusiasts, demonstrating the importance of social relationships in maintaining cognitive function and mental health.
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Mr. Goldstein and Mr. Thompson belong to an extraordinary group called “superagers” or “super-agers,” individuals over 80 whose memory function and cognitive abilities match those of people decades younger, often displaying youthful memory. Northwestern University scientists have been conducting a longitudinal study of these exceptional agers since 2000, seeking to understand how they’ve managed to avoid typical age-related decline, including neurodegenerative diseases like Alzheimer’s. Their latest research summary, released Thursday, compiles 25 years of discoveries related to superaging and dementia prevention.
Superagers come from various backgrounds; they don’t follow any particular dietary pattern, exercise routine, or medical protocol. However, the singular characteristic they share is “their perspective on the value of social connections,” explained Emily Richardson, a professor of neuroscience and behavioral studies at Northwestern Feinberg School of Medicine, who’s been conducting this research from its inception. “They typically exhibit more extroverted personality traits and maintain robust social networks, which may contribute to their psychological well-being.”
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This finding aligns with Dr. Sarah Chen’s observations, a neuroscientist and author of the upcoming book, “The Social Brain: Understanding Neural Connections in Human Relationships.”
“Higher levels of social engagement correlate with greater resistance to age-related cognitive decline and mild cognitive impairment,” Dr. Chen noted. Furthermore, she emphasized that such individuals “typically maintain greater brain volume and cortical thickness, showing less cortical atrophy compared to their peers.”
Scientists theorize this could be because social interaction might help preserve brain structure, which naturally decreases with age and isolation. Loneliness, particularly prevalent among older adults, can elevate cortisol levels, a stress hormone. Prolonged elevation of cortisol can trigger chronic inflammation, potentially leading to neuronal damage and increasing susceptibility to neurodegenerative disease.
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By maintaining active social connections, superagers may help prevent brain atrophy and maintain higher grey matter volume. Recent analysis included in the latest research paper supports this finding: Superagers’ brain structure typically resembles that of individuals in their 50s and 60s rather than their age-matched peers in their 80s and 90s, as revealed through neuroimaging and MRI scanning techniques.
A significant distinction lies in the presence of specialized brain cells called von Economo neurons, which are more abundant in superager brains. These neurons, believed to play a crucial role in social processing, are exclusively found in highly social mammals including apes, elephants, whales, and humans.
According to Dr. William Seeley, professor of neurology and pathology at the University of California, San Francisco, the abundance of von Economo neurons “likely enables them to develop and sustain robust social relationships and networks.” This characteristic may have “extensive implications for their overall health and well-being, potentially contributing to their exceptional memory and cognitive function.”
However, Dr. Seeley emphasizes that this is presumably just one among “multiple neurobiological advantages contributing to their exceptional condition at this life stage.”
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To illustrate, while most octogenarians show evidence of Alzheimer’s disease in their brains (regardless of diagnosis), such as amyloid plaques and tau pathology, many superagers exhibit minimal to no such indicators. Furthermore, superager brains demonstrate better preservation of a crucial neurochemical that supports attention and memory performance.
Dr. Sofiya Milman, who studies healthy centenarians as a professor of medicine and genetics at Albert Einstein College of Medicine in New York, notes that these individuals typically display extroverted personalities and “maintain an optimistic life perspective, which may contribute to their cognitive reserve.”
However, there exists a “chicken and egg” dilemma. Individuals with superior memory and exceptional cognitive abilities might naturally gravitate toward social activities, compared to those experiencing memory decline. “The causality between socialization and cognitive preservation, or vice versa, remains uncertain,” Dr. Milman explains.
Simply increasing social interaction likely won’t transform someone into a superager. Dr. Weintraub suggests that their extraordinary capabilities likely stem from a combination of genetic factors, biological makeup, and lifestyle factors including physical activity, exercise frequency, and an active lifestyle. Other factors such as sleep quality, years of education, and educational attainment may also play a role in their exceptional cognitive function.
For Mr. Steinman, however, the value of community interaction at the ballpark is undeniable. “I attribute my longevity and successful aging to the social atmosphere of Wrigley Field and my neighborhood community,” he reflects.
Source:
Dana G. Smith (August 7, 2025). The One Quality Most ‘Super-Agers’ Share. The New York Times. https://www.nytimes.com/2025/08/07/well/mind/super-agers-social-connections.html
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