A new study of post-mortem human brain tissue Published in Nature is intensifying interest in “superagers,” adults over 80 whose memory rivals that of people in their 50s and 60s. The research examined the hippocampus, the brain region central to memory. Superagers have roughly twice the number of newly forming neurons as other healthy older adults and about two and a half times as many as people with Alzheimer’s disease.
The study’s authors and outside specialists emphasized that the immature neurons observed in superagers are especially adaptable. Young neurons are described as the most plastic type of brain cell, with an enhanced ability to grow, integrate, and “wire into the brain.” The emerging portrait of the superaging brain extends beyond neuron birth alone. Analyses of brain tissue have shown that the cingulate cortex, an area tied to attention, motivation, and cognitive engagement, is thicker in superagers than in people decades younger. Their hippocampi harbor about three times fewer tau tangles, one of the protein hallmarks associated with memory decline.
Robust support systems
Researchers also report that superagers’ hippocampi appear to contain more robust cellular “support systems” that nurture young neurons. This points to a microenvironment that may help these cells survive and integrate. Together, these features suggest that sustained, youthful-like neurogenesis and favorable tissue architecture could underpin the superior recall that defines superagers. They are typically identified by their ability to retrieve detailed personal history at levels comparable to middle-aged adults. While the activity of creating new neurons appears to diminish sharply in Alzheimer’s disease, superagers exhibit persistently elevated neuron birth.
“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,” said neuropsychiatrist Tamar Gefen, who added that the study “at least associates a person over 80 who has an exceptional memory with all these immature neurons.”
Decades-long scientific debate
The findings arrive amid a decades-long scientific debate about whether adult human brains can generate new neurons at all. Early in the 20th century, prominent theories held that adult brain cells were fixed and unchangeable, later tempered by suggestions that future science might overturn that view. Landmark animal studies in 1962 showed new neuron formation in adult rats, including in the hippocampus. In humans, evidence of newly formed hippocampal neurons in deceased cancer patients in 1998 helped galvanize the field. Carbon-14 dating work in 2014 indicated new neurons may form at least up to around age 50.
Although some researchers have argued that adult neurogenesis findings could be confounded by methodological issues, a 2025 study identified cells in the adult brain with characteristics of dividing neurons, suggesting the process occurs—albeit very slowly—in at least some individuals, according to Wprost. Proponents of the superaging research say its promise lies in what it could enable. Determining why some brains age more healthily than others could guide therapeutics that bolster cognitive resilience and reduce risk for Alzheimer’s and related dementias. Because neurodegenerative diseases such as Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s target specific brain regions that were assessed in the study, pinpointing mechanisms that preserve plasticity and neuron birth may yield practical treatment avenues. The work also dovetails with evidence that the brain remains malleable in later life.
Appropriate maintenance and stimulation can improve brain functions with age. Interventions grounded in the “use it or lose it” principle have been linked to significant cognitive gains and even increases in hippocampal size over periods as short as 12 weeks. Complementary lifestyle approaches—improving diet, exercising, reducing stress, optimizing sleep, and managing vascular risk factors—have been associated with larger hippocampal volumes and reductions in Alzheimer’s hallmarks such as tau tangles and amyloid plaques. The study’s implications are as much about prevention as they are about explaining outliers. If researchers can learn how superagers naturally maintain youthful-like neurogenesis, they may help more adults preserve cognitive health into advanced age.
This article was produced with the assistance of a new analysis technology.