April 6, 2017.
How can we explain that some people manage to stay young even at an advanced age? American researchers may have just found the answer.
24 “super-seniors” are doing tests to understand the origin of their youth
American researchers have just taken an interest in a scientific mystery: inequality in cognitive aging. When some see their brain capacity diminish after a certain age, others manage to defy the laws of nature. and to retain all their faculties until a very advanced age. In the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA), researchers from Northwestern University in Chicago publish the astonishing results of their study on this subject.
A study during which they asked 24 people, described as “super-seniors”, to engage in tests to which were also subjected 12 people showing normal brain capacities. The observation of these participants lasted 18 months, during which they were examined, their brains observed thanks to various MRI scans and their cognitive capacities closely analyzed..
The cerebral cortex is responsible for cognitive health
It was after a year of research that the first results came out. The authors of this study then showed that the cerebral cortex – the organic tissue a few millimeters thick that covers the cerebral hemispheres – “super-seniors” was more resistant, in time, than that of the witness participants. The images of the various MRIs have indeed shown that this membrane had decreased, in one year, by 1.06% in the elderly in very good mental health, against 2.24% in the others.
How to explain this difference? The mystery has not been fully solved and the authors of this study consider in particular a lower cortical atropy in these people or even other external elements such as physical activity, food or even hobbies. For this, further research will be necessary.
Sybille Latour
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