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Klinedinst BS, Kharate MK, Mohammadiarvejeh P, Fili M, Pollpeter A, Larsen BA, Moody S, Wang Q, Allenspach K, Mochel JP, Willette AA. Exploring the secrets of super-aging: a UK Biobank study on brain health and cognitive function. GeroScience 2023; 45:2471-2480. [PMID: 36947307 PMCID: PMC10651574 DOI: 10.1007/s11357-023-00765-x] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/02/2023] [Accepted: 02/27/2023] [Indexed: 03/23/2023] Open
Abstract
Communities across the globe are faced with a rapidly aging society, where age is the main risk factor for cognitive decline and development of Alzheimer's and related diseases. Despite extensive research, there have been no successful treatments yet. A rare group of individuals called "super-agers" have been noted to thrive with their exceptional ability to maintain a healthy brain and normal cognitive function even in old age. Studying their traits, lifestyles, and environments may provide valuable insight. This study used a data-driven approach to identify potential super-agers among 7121 UK Biobank participants and found that these individuals have the highest total brain volume, best cognitive performance, and lowest functional connectivity. The researchers suggest a novel hypothesis that these super-agers possess enhanced neural processing efficiency that increases with age and introduce a definition of the "neural efficiency index." Furthermore, several other types of aging were identified and significant structural-functional differences were observed between them, highlighting the benefit of research efforts in personalized medicine and precision nutrition.
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Affiliation(s)
- Brandon S Klinedinst
- Department of Medicine, University of Washington, Box 359, 325 9th Avenue, WA, 98104, Seattle, USA.
| | - Mihir K Kharate
- Department of Veterinary Clinical Sciences, Iowa State University, Ames, IA, USA
| | - Parvin Mohammadiarvejeh
- Department of Industrial and Manufacturing Systems Engineering, Iowa State University, Ames, IA, USA
| | - Mohammad Fili
- Department of Industrial and Manufacturing Systems Engineering, Iowa State University, Ames, IA, USA
| | - Amy Pollpeter
- Interdepartmental Bioinformatics and Computational Program, Iowa State University, Ames, IA, USA
- Department of Food Science and Human Nutrition, Iowa State University, Ames, IA, USA
| | - Brittany A Larsen
- Neuroscience Graduate Program, Iowa State University, Ames, IA, USA
- Department of Biomedical Sciences, Iowa State University, Ames, IA, USA
| | - Shannin Moody
- Health Sciences Center, Louisiana State University, New Orleans, LA, USA
| | - Qian Wang
- Department of Food Science and Human Nutrition, Iowa State University, Ames, IA, USA
| | - Karin Allenspach
- Department of Veterinary Clinical Sciences, Iowa State University, Ames, IA, USA
| | - Jonathan P Mochel
- Department of Biomedical Sciences, Iowa State University, Ames, IA, USA
| | - Auriel A Willette
- Department of Veterinary Clinical Sciences, Iowa State University, Ames, IA, USA
- Department of Food Science and Human Nutrition, Iowa State University, Ames, IA, USA
- Neuroscience Graduate Program, Iowa State University, Ames, IA, USA
- Department of Neurology, University of Iowa, Iowa City, IA, USA
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