A small study of “Super Agers” has found a key difference between them and typical older adults: an unusually large anterior cingulate (involved in attention), with four times as many von Economo neurons.
Key attention region may underlie ‘super agers’ cognitive powers
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A large study using data from the famous Framingham Heart Study has compared changes in dementia onset over the last three decades. The study found that over time the age of onset has increased while the length of time spent with dementia has decreased. |
Data from more than 17,000 healthy people aged 50 and over has revealed that the more regularly participants engaged with word puzzles, the better they performed on tasks assessing attention, reasoning and memory. |
Unplanned hospitalizations accelerate cognitive decline in older adultsData from the Rush Memory and Aging Project has found that emergency and urgent hospitalizations are associated with an increased rate of cognitive decline in older adults. |
A Finnish study involving 338 older adults (average age 66) has found that greater muscle strength is associated with better cognitive function. |
Data from over 11,500 participants in the Atherosclerosis Risk in Communities (ARIC) cohort has found evidence that orthostatic hypotension in middle age may increase the risk of cognitive impairment and dementia 20 years later. |
A review of 39 studies investigating the effect of exercise on cognition in older adults (50+) confirms that physical exercise does indeed improve cognitive function in the over 50s, regardless of their cognitive status. |
In Australia, it has beens estimated that 9% of people aged over 65, and 30% of those aged over 85 have dementia. However, these estimates are largely based on older data from other countries, or small local samples. |