Secrets of 'SuperAger' brains: Elderly super-agers have brains that look and act decades younger than their age
來源：火星譯客
譯員：jiong
Researchers have long chronicled what goes wrong in the brains of older people with dementia. But Northwestern Medicine researcher Emily Rogalski wondered what goes right in the brains of the elderly who still have terrific memories. And, do those people -- call them cognitive SuperAgers -- even exist?
許多研究人員長期跟蹤研究老人大腦痴呆原因，可是西北大學醫學院研究員艾米麗·羅蓋爾斯基（ Emily Rogalski ）卻對老人大腦具有驚人記憶力感到好奇。這些人真的會有嗎？人們稱他們為「超記憶高認知老人」。
Rogalski's new study has for the first time identified an elite group of elderly people age 80 and older whose memories are as sharp as people 20 to 30 years younger than them. And on 3-D MRI scans, the SuperAger participants' brains appear as young -- and one brain region was even bigger -- than the brains of the middle-aged participants.
羅蓋爾斯基這項研究首次確認，在80歲以上的老人中間，有一群人記憶力如同20－30歲年輕人，思維相當敏捷。三維核磁共振成像（3-D MRI）掃描發現，這些老人大腦如同年輕人，大腦有個區域甚至大於中年人。
She was astounded by the vitality of the SuperAgers' cortex -- the outer layer of the brain important for memory, attention and other thinking abilities. Theirs was much thicker than the cortex of the normal group of elderly 80 and older (whose showed significant thinning) and closely resembled the cortex size of participants ages 50 to 65, considered the middle-aged group of the study.
羅蓋爾斯基為超記憶高認知老人（SuperAgers）大腦皮質的生命力感到驚訝。大腦皮層是一個對記憶力、注意力及其思維能力十分重要的區域。這些老人大腦皮層比年齡80歲以上同齡老人厚，完全相似於中年人群50－65歲人的大腦。
"These findings are remarkable given the fact that grey matter or brain cell loss is a common part of normal aging," said Rogalski, the principal investigator of the study and an assistant research professor at the Cognitive Neurology and Alzheimer's Disease Center at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine.
「該項研究有力證實，灰色物質即大腦細胞的損失是大腦衰老一個共同主要原因。」羅蓋爾斯基說。她是西北大學費恩伯格醫學院認知神經病學與阿爾茨海默疾病中心任助理研究教授兼項目主任研究員。
Rogalski is senior author of the paper, which is published in the Journal of the International Neuropsychological Society.
羅蓋爾斯基是該論文資深作者，該論文發表在《國際神經心理學協會雜誌》上 。
By identifying older people who seem to be uniquely protected from the deterioration of memory and atrophy of brain cells that accompanies aging, Rogalski hopes to unlock the secrets of their youthful brains. Those discoveries may be applied to protect others from memory loss or even Alzheimer's disease.
這些老人避免了因衰老而造成的記憶力下降和腦細胞萎縮侵害，，羅蓋爾斯基希望通過他們揭開大腦年輕化的秘密。這項研究有助於人們保護好自己大腦，避免記憶喪失和罹患阿爾茨海默氏病。
"By looking at a really healthy older brain, we can start to deduce how SuperAgers are able to maintain their good memory," Rogalski said. "Many scientists study what's wrong with the brain, but maybe we can ultimately help Alzheimer's patients by figuring out what goes right in the brain of SuperAgers. What we learn from these healthy brains may inform our strategies for improving quality of life for the elderly and for combatting Alzheimer's disease."
羅蓋爾斯基說：「通過觀察一個真正健康的老年大腦，我們可以開始推斷超記憶高認知老人如何保持其良好的記憶力。」 「許多科學家研究大腦出了什麼問題，但也許我們可以通過弄清超記憶高認知老人大腦中哪些問題可以最終幫助阿爾茨海默氏病患者。我們從這些健康的大腦中學到的信息可能會為我們改善老年人和老年人的生活質量的策略提供信息。與阿爾茨海默氏病作鬥爭。」
By measuring the thickness of the cortex -- the outer layer of the brain where neurons (brain cells) reside -- Rogalski has a sense of how many brain cells are left.
通過測量皮質的厚度-神經元（大腦細胞）所在的大腦的外層，羅蓋爾斯基可以知道還剩下多少個大腦細胞。
"We can't actually count them, but the thickness of the outer cortex of the brain provides an indirect measure of the health of the brain," she said. "A thicker cortex, suggests a greater number of neurons."
「我們雖然無法真正計算出大腦細胞，但大腦外層皮質的厚度測量提供了一種直接度量大腦是否健康的方法。
In another region deep in the brain, the anterior cingulate of SuperAger participants' was actually thicker than in the 50 to 65 year olds.
超記憶高認知老人大腦另一較深區域就是前扣帶回皮層，它的厚度實際上大於50－65歲年齡的人。
"This is pretty incredible," Rogalski said. "This region is important for attention. Attention supports memory. Perhaps the SuperAgers have really keen attention and that supports their exceptional memories."
「這十分令驚訝的。」羅蓋爾斯基說。「這個區域對注意力起很大作用。注意力影響記憶力。超記憶高認知老人實際上具有敏銳的觀察力，這或許有助於支持他們的驚人記憶力。」
Only 10 percent of the people who "thought they had outstanding memories" met the criteria for the study. To be defined as a SuperAger, the participants needed to score at or above the norm of the 50 to 65 year olds on memory screenings.
那些自認為自己「具有驚人的記憶力」的人僅有10%的人符合標準。為了界定超記憶高認知老人，受測試者必須經過記憶篩查才能確認他們記憶是否符合或超出50－65歲年齡的能力。
"These are a special group of people," Rogalski said. They aren't growing on trees."
「這是一群特殊的人。」羅蓋爾斯基說，「並非人人皆有。」
For the study, Rogalski viewed the MRI scans of 12 Chicago-area Superager participants' brains and screened their memory and other cognitive abilities. The study included 10 normally aging elderly participants who were an average age of 83.1 and 14 middle-aged participants who were an average age of 57.9. There were not significant differences in education among the groups.
為了進行該項研究，羅蓋爾斯基詳細分析了居住在芝加哥12位超記憶高認知老人的核磁共振成像，以及這些人的記憶力和認知能力。研究對象包括平均年齡為83.1歲的10位正常老人，和平均年齡57.9歲14位中等年齡的人。
Most of the SuperAger participants plan to donate their brains to the study. "By studying their brains we can link the attributes of the living person to the underlying cellular features," Rogalski said.
絕大多數超常老人願捐獻自己大腦供科學研究之用。羅蓋爾斯基說：「我們通過對超記憶高認知老人大腦的研究可找到人的生活特性與潛在細胞特徵之間的關係。」
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文章來源：
Materials provided by Northwestern University. Note: Content may be edited for style and length.
西北大學提供原文。說明：文稿格式和長度已重新編輯。
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