How Do People Keep Razor Sharp Minds Into Their 80’s And Beyond?

How Do People Keep Razor Sharp Minds Into Their 80’s And Beyond?

It’s a common belief that as adults age, their brains decline, leading to protein malfunctions that cause cells to die and a decline in memory and thinking skills.

But it’s different with aging animals. Neuroscientists have found evidence to suggest that some adult animals, including mice and monkeys, can form new nerve cells, or neurons, in the brain. If this can happen to animals, then researchers questioned whether neurogenesis, the process of developing new neurons, can occur in the adult human brain.

Although evidence that this occurs in humans has been mixed, researchers have found that some people have razor-sharp minds because their brains remain remarkably healthy as they age. Now, more evidence of this has been provided by scientists at the University of Illinois Chicago (UIC) College of Medicine.

In their 2026 study published in the journal Nature, the UIC scientists discovered that adults aged 80 and over with exceptional memory had twice as many new neurons as older adults with normal memory for their age, and two and a half times more neurons than people with Alzheimer’s disease. The new nerve cells were found in the hippocampus, an area of the brain involved in memory and learning.

The UIC investigators examined the donated brains of “SuperAgers” from the Northwestern University SuperAger Program. Northwestern University describes SuperAgers as a “unique group of adults over age 80 whose performance on tests of episodic memory was equal to or better than that of people in their 50s.”  While they have IQ levels similar to others in their age group, SuperAgers can recall everyday events and past personal experiences as easily as people in their 50s.

“This shows the aging brain has the capacity to regenerate—that’s huge,” Tamar Gefen, the study’s co-author and a clinical neuropsychologist at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine, told CNN.

For the past 25 years, investigators at Northwestern have been conducting SuperAger research that has focused on biological and behavioral differences in this group. However, the researcher says this is the first study that found a genetic difference between SuperAgers and typical older adults.

“We’ve always said that SuperAgers show that the aging brain can be biologically active, adaptable, flexible, but we didn’t know why,” Gefen said in a press release. “This is biological proof that their brains are more plastic, and a real discovery that shows that neurogenesis of young neurons in the hippocampus may be a contributing factor.”

The UIC-led research team examined five classes of brains: