In a new blow against the cliches of ageism, new research suggests so called “superagers” not only hang on to their memories longer than typical silvers – their brains regenerate at a higher level. Superagers are adults over age 80 whose performance on tests of episodic memory – ability to remember events and in their emotional responses in context – was equal to or better than that of people in their 50s. A study published in Nature and by scientists at the University of Illinois Chicago shows a contributing factor may be continuing generation of neurons in the hippocampus, which has been described as the brain’s command center for consolidating, organising, and retrieving memory and spatial navigation.
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