Secrets of 'SuperAger' brains: Elderly super-agers have brains that look and act decades younger than their age

来源：火星译客

译员：jiong

Researchers have long chronicled what goes wrong in the brains of older people with dementia. But Northwestern Medicine researcher Emily Rogalski wondered what goes right in the brains of the elderly who still have terrific memories. And, do those people -- call them cognitive SuperAgers -- even exist?

许多研究人员长期跟踪研究老人大脑痴呆原因，可是西北大学医学院研究员艾米丽·罗盖尔斯基（ Emily Rogalski ）却对老人大脑具有惊人记忆力感到好奇。这些人真的会有吗？人们称他们为“超记忆高认知老人”。

Rogalski's new study has for the first time identified an elite group of elderly people age 80 and older whose memories are as sharp as people 20 to 30 years younger than them. And on 3-D MRI scans, the SuperAger participants' brains appear as young -- and one brain region was even bigger -- than the brains of the middle-aged participants.

罗盖尔斯基这项研究首次确认，在80岁以上的老人中间，有一群人记忆力如同20－30岁年轻人，思维相当敏捷。三维核磁共振成像（3-D MRI）扫描发现，这些老人大脑如同年轻人，大脑有个区域甚至大于中年人。

She was astounded by the vitality of the SuperAgers' cortex -- the outer layer of the brain important for memory, attention and other thinking abilities. Theirs was much thicker than the cortex of the normal group of elderly 80 and older (whose showed significant thinning) and closely resembled the cortex size of participants ages 50 to 65, considered the middle-aged group of the study.

罗盖尔斯基为超记忆高认知老人（SuperAgers）大脑皮质的生命力感到惊讶。大脑皮层是一个对记忆力、注意力及其思维能力十分重要的区域。这些老人大脑皮层比年龄80岁以上同龄老人厚，完全相似于中年人群50－65岁人的大脑。

"These findings are remarkable given the fact that grey matter or brain cell loss is a common part of normal aging," said Rogalski, the principal investigator of the study and an assistant research professor at the Cognitive Neurology and Alzheimer's Disease Center at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine.

“该项研究有力证实，灰色物质即大脑细胞的损失是大脑衰老一个共同主要原因。”罗盖尔斯基说。她是西北大学费恩伯格医学院认知神经病学与阿尔茨海默疾病中心任助理研究教授兼项目主任研究员。

Rogalski is senior author of the paper, which is published in the Journal of the International Neuropsychological Society.

罗盖尔斯基是该论文资深作者，该论文发表在《国际神经心理学协会杂志》上 。

By identifying older people who seem to be uniquely protected from the deterioration of memory and atrophy of brain cells that accompanies aging, Rogalski hopes to unlock the secrets of their youthful brains. Those discoveries may be applied to protect others from memory loss or even Alzheimer's disease.

这些老人避免了因衰老而造成的记忆力下降和脑细胞萎缩侵害，，罗盖尔斯基希望通过他们揭开大脑年轻化的秘密。这项研究有助于人们保护好自己大脑，避免记忆丧失和罹患阿尔茨海默氏病。

"By looking at a really healthy older brain, we can start to deduce how SuperAgers are able to maintain their good memory," Rogalski said. "Many scientists study what's wrong with the brain, but maybe we can ultimately help Alzheimer's patients by figuring out what goes right in the brain of SuperAgers. What we learn from these healthy brains may inform our strategies for improving quality of life for the elderly and for combatting Alzheimer's disease."

罗盖尔斯基说：“通过观察一个真正健康的老年大脑，我们可以开始推断超记忆高认知老人如何保持其良好的记忆力。” “许多科学家研究大脑出了什么问题，但也许我们可以通过弄清超记忆高认知老人大脑中哪些问题可以最终帮助阿尔茨海默氏病患者。我们从这些健康的大脑中学到的信息可能会为我们改善老年人和老年人的生活质量的策略提供信息。与阿尔茨海默氏病作斗争。”

By measuring the thickness of the cortex -- the outer layer of the brain where neurons (brain cells) reside -- Rogalski has a sense of how many brain cells are left.

通过测量皮质的厚度-神经元（大脑细胞）所在的大脑的外层，罗盖尔斯基可以知道还剩下多少个大脑细胞。

"We can't actually count them, but the thickness of the outer cortex of the brain provides an indirect measure of the health of the brain," she said. "A thicker cortex, suggests a greater number of neurons."

“我们虽然无法真正计算出大脑细胞，但大脑外层皮质的厚度测量提供了一种直接度量大脑是否健康的方法。

In another region deep in the brain, the anterior cingulate of SuperAger participants' was actually thicker than in the 50 to 65 year olds.

超记忆高认知老人大脑另一较深区域就是前扣带回皮层，它的厚度实际上大于50－65岁年龄的人。

"This is pretty incredible," Rogalski said. "This region is important for attention. Attention supports memory. Perhaps the SuperAgers have really keen attention and that supports their exceptional memories."

“这十分令惊讶的。”罗盖尔斯基说。“这个区域对注意力起很大作用。注意力影响记忆力。超记忆高认知老人实际上具有敏锐的观察力，这或许有助于支持他们的惊人记忆力。”

Only 10 percent of the people who "thought they had outstanding memories" met the criteria for the study. To be defined as a SuperAger, the participants needed to score at or above the norm of the 50 to 65 year olds on memory screenings.

那些自认为自己“具有惊人的记忆力”的人仅有10%的人符合标准。为了界定超记忆高认知老人，受测试者必须经过记忆筛查才能确认他们记忆是否符合或超出50－65岁年龄的能力。

"These are a special group of people," Rogalski said. They aren't growing on trees."

“这是一群特殊的人。”罗盖尔斯基说，“并非人人皆有。”

For the study, Rogalski viewed the MRI scans of 12 Chicago-area Superager participants' brains and screened their memory and other cognitive abilities. The study included 10 normally aging elderly participants who were an average age of 83.1 and 14 middle-aged participants who were an average age of 57.9. There were not significant differences in education among the groups.

为了进行该项研究，罗盖尔斯基详细分析了居住在芝加哥12位超记忆高认知老人的核磁共振成像，以及这些人的记忆力和认知能力。研究对象包括平均年龄为83.1岁的10位正常老人，和平均年龄57.9岁14位中等年龄的人。

Most of the SuperAger participants plan to donate their brains to the study. "By studying their brains we can link the attributes of the living person to the underlying cellular features," Rogalski said.

绝大多数超常老人愿捐献自己大脑供科学研究之用。罗盖尔斯基说：“我们通过对超记忆高认知老人大脑的研究可找到人的生活特性与潜在细胞特征之间的关系。”

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Materials provided by Northwestern University. Note: Content may be edited for style and length.

西北大学提供原文。说明：文稿格式和长度已重新编辑。