Sharp memory recall in old linked with swiftness, better mental health

New Delhi: Superagers, or people in their eighties with memory recall as good as someone decades younger, are likely to be swifter and display lower anxiety and depression than typical older adults, according to new research published in The Lancet Healthy Longevity journal.

Superagers have been seen to avoid the natural deterioration of memory with age.

The observational study from Spain aimed to find out if this was because superagers were resistant to or if they had coping mechanisms empowering them to overcome age-related memory decline better than their peers.

"Our findings suggest superagers are resistant to these processes, though the precise reasons for this are still unclear," said first author Marta Garo-Pascual of the Queen Sofia Foundation Alzheimer Centre, Madrid, Spain.

For the study, 64 superagers and 55 typical older adults, performing cognitively well but not displaying superager memory ability, were chosen.

They were aged 79.5 years or older and were picked from The Vallecas Project cohort, Madrid. The cohort comprising 1,213 participants aged 69-86 years with no neurological or severe psychiatric disorders was recruited between 2011 and 2014.

Superagers' MRI scans showed more grey matter, the brain tissue vital for normal functioning, in key parts separately involved in memory and movement. Their overall grey matter was also seen to degenerate more slowly over the 5-year follow-up period than in typical older adults.

Swifter movements and enhanced mental health were the factors most associated with superagers, the authors found using a machine learning model, that included 89 demographic, lifestyle, and clinical predictors of the participants.

Superagers were also found to fare better on mobility and fine motor function tests, indicating a mobility, agility and balance superior to those of typical older adults, despite no differences in the two groups' self-reported exercise levels.

In clinical tests measuring anxiety and depression levels, superagers scored lower than typical older adults.

They also registered lower levels of neurodegeneration biomarkers, blood sample analysis revealed.

"Though superagers report similar activity levels to typical older people, it's possible they do more physically demanding activities like gardening or stair climbing.

"From lower blood pressure and obesity levels to increased blood flow to the brain, there are many direct and indirect benefits of being physically active that may contribute to improved cognitive abilities in old age," said senior author Bryan Strange, Universidad Politecnica de Madrid.

Superagers had a more generally active midlife lifestyle, were satisfied with their sleep duration, and were more likely to have a musical background - trained or amateur - than did typical older adults, the researchers observed from the participants' self-reported responses recorded over annual follow-up visits.

They were also more independent in their day-to-day living and scored higher on intelligence.

However, being an observational study, the researchers said it was not possible to say whether the factors reported directly impacted superageing.

"By looking further into links between superageing and movement speed we may be able to gain important insights into the mechanisms behind the preservation of memory function deep into old age," said Garo-Pascual.

"(Our findings) raise a possibility that some (commonly accepted) risk factors for dementia (such as anxiety and depression) are, in fact, contributing to age-related decline in memory-related brain activity that may act in parallel or additively with dementia pathophysiology to amplify memory impairment," said Strange.