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Exploring the secrets of super-aging: a UK Biobank study on brain health and cognitive function

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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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Data Availability

The UK Biobank data used for this article requires a data user agreement approval. Please see www.ukbiobank.ac.uk for access.

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Acknowledgements

This research has been conducted using the UK Biobank Resource under Application Number 25057.

Funding

This work was supported by the Iowa State University, National Institutes of Health (NIH) R00 AG047282 and National Institute of Aging (NIA) P30AG10161.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Medicine, University of Washington, Box 359, 325 9th Avenue, WA, 98104, Seattle, USA

    Brandon S. Klinedinst

  2. Department of Veterinary Clinical Sciences, Iowa State University, Ames, IA, USA

    Mihir K. Kharate, Karin Allenspach & Auriel A. Willette

  3. Department of Industrial and Manufacturing Systems Engineering, Iowa State University, Ames, IA, USA

    Parvin Mohammadiarvejeh & Mohammad Fili

  4. Interdepartmental Bioinformatics and Computational Program, Iowa State University, Ames, IA, USA

    Amy Pollpeter

  5. Department of Food Science and Human Nutrition, Iowa State University, Ames, IA, USA

    Amy Pollpeter, Qian Wang & Auriel A. Willette

  6. Neuroscience Graduate Program, Iowa State University, Ames, IA, USA

    Brittany A. Larsen & Auriel A. Willette

  7. Department of Biomedical Sciences, Iowa State University, Ames, IA, USA

    Brittany A. Larsen & Jonathan P. Mochel

  8. Health Sciences Center, Louisiana State University, New Orleans, LA, USA

    Shannin Moody

  9. Department of Neurology, University of Iowa, Iowa City, IA, USA

    Auriel A. Willette

Authors
  1. Brandon S. Klinedinst
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  2. Mihir K. Kharate
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  3. Parvin Mohammadiarvejeh
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  4. Mohammad Fili
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  6. Brittany A. Larsen
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  7. Shannin Moody
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  8. Qian Wang
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  9. Karin Allenspach
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  10. Jonathan P. Mochel
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  11. Auriel A. Willette
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Brandon S. Klinedinst.

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Cite this article

Klinedinst, B.S., Kharate, M.K., Mohammadiarvejeh, P. et al. Exploring the secrets of super-aging: a UK Biobank study on brain health and cognitive function. GeroScience 45, 2471–2480 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11357-023-00765-x

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11357-023-00765-x

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