Scientists have long searched for evidence of super-agers, those whose brains age slower than their bodies. But identifying these exceptional individuals has proven difficult, as there is often no external evidence of their cognitive abilities.
However, a new study, from the University of Rochester, has found that measuring brain activity while completing a cognitive task while walking could be a potential indicator of super-aging.
“Identifying super-agers will leverage what we understand about the brain and aging,” the researchers explain. “But this is difficult to do because, in this case, there was no external evidence of this ability, and people are unaware that their brain is working differently.”
The study used Mobile Brain/Body Imaging (MoBI) to observe changes in brain activity while participants completed the same cognitive task while sitting and walking.
The benefits of walking
The researchers found that some individuals improved their cognitive performance while walking, demonstrating a flexible usage of certain frontal neural resources. This brain activity may constitute signatures of super-aging.
“We think this brain activity might constitute signatures of ‘super-aging,’” the researchers explain. “We were able to find seven people, and now that we know where and how to look in the brain to find these super-agers, we can find more.”
The researchers identified seven super-agers in the study and believe that they now know where and how to look in the brain to find more. Brain flexibility is an indicator of brain health, and these findings offer a potentially necessary component for tracking the health of an individual’s brain.
“These findings have promise for being translated to clinical populations, such as patients with neurodegenerative diseases,” the researchers explain. “These markers could be used to assess the degree of disease progression, to evaluate treatment outcomes, and potentially to identify people, pre-clinically, at high risk for developing aging-related or disease-related cognitive decline.”
The research may prove especially useful for patients with neurodegenerative diseases, who could benefit from early identification and treatment.
