SuperAgers : do octogenarians with exceptional memory hold the key to healthy aging?

That older relative who stays preternaturally sharp long into their 80's or 90's may hold within their skull the secret to understanding how we lose, and keep, our memories. There are many different ways of aging successfully, but a growing group of scientists at Northwestern university and elsewhere are zeroing in on why some people keep the recall you'd expect of a middle-ager well into their 9th and 10th decades. The scientists do everything they can to get to know these the owners of these brains -- their abilities, their genes, and the stories of their lives -- then, when they die, dissect the brains themselves. Will the craniums of these successful "SuperAgers" give science some leverage in the battle against dementia, or even against aging itself?

Department dc:contributor.department

Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Graduate Program in Science Writing

Grantor dc:publisher

Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Year dc:date.issued

2017

Author dc:creator

• McIntosh, Bennett Allan

Advisor dc:contributor.advisor

• Seth Mnookin.

• Comparative Media Studies.
• Graduate Program in Science Writing.

Statement dc:rights

• MIT theses are protected by copyright. They may be viewed, downloaded, or printed from this source but further reproduction or distribution in any format is prohibited without written permission.

Licence dc:rights.uri

• http://dspace.mit.edu/handle/1721.1/7582

Language dc:language.iso

eng

Handle dc:identifier.uri

http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/112882

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:dspace.mit.edu:1721.1/112882