Superagers keep youthful memories but their DNA does not explain why - Date: - July 25, 2026 - Source: - University of Chicago Medical Center - Summary: - Scientists expected SuperAgers might simply inherit fewer Alzheimer’s-related risks, but their genes looked much like those of typical older adults. Their extraordinary memories may instead come from still-unknown protective forces involving the brain, body, lifestyle, and environment. - Share: Many people expect memory to fade as a normal part of aging.

Yet some older adults, called SuperAgers, reach their 80s and 90s with memory abilities that match or even exceed those of people in their 50s and 60s. Scientists have spent nearly 20 years identifying the biological, neurological, and psychosocial traits linked to SuperAgers. One major question, however, has remained unresolved: Are SuperAgers simply people who inherited unusually low genetic risk for Alzheimer's disease?

"If that were true, identifying SuperAgers might be as simple as performing genetic testing rather than the comprehensive cognitive evaluations we currently use," said Emily Rogalski, PhD, director of the Healthy Aging & Alzheimer's Research Care (HAARC) Center at the University of Chicago, who established the definition of SuperAging in 2008 and has been studying this remarkable population ever since. Testing the Genetic Explanation for SuperAging To investigate that possibility, researchers analyzed the largest prospectively enrolled SuperAging cohorts studied with the latest measures of genetic risk for Alzheimer's disease. The results, published in Alzheimer's Research & Therapy, indicate that extraordinary memory in later life cannot be explained solely by low inherited Alzheimer's risk.

The findings highlight the need to study the protective mechanisms that may help some people maintain unusually strong cognitive abilities. Researchers from the HAARC Center and the Translational Genomics Research Institute (TGen), part of City of Hope, examined a diverse group recruited from five regional sites in the U.S. and Canada.

The study included 142 SuperAgers and 89 older adults with average cognitive performance. Using DNA obtained from blood samples, the team analyzed the APOE gene, the strongest known genetic risk factor for Alzheimer's disease. They also calculated three polygenic risk scores, which combine thousands of genetic variants associated with inherited Alzheimer's risk.

SuperAgers Show No Clear Genetic Advantage The results directly challenged the idea that SuperAgers are protected simply because they carry fewer Alzheimer's related risk variants. Researchers could not distinguish SuperAgers from cognitively average older adults based on either APOE or the Alzheimer's polygenic risk scores. Put simply, exceptional memory in a person's 80s does not appear to result from having exceptionally low inherited risk for Alzheimer's disease.

"The findings reinforce that preserving cognitive health involves more than reducing Alzheimer's disease risk alone," said co-first author Ana Capuano, PhD, director of the biostatistics core at the HAARC Center. "Understanding the biological, behavioral, and social factors that promote exceptional cognitive aging may ultimately complement traditional disease-focused approaches and help inform more personalized strategies for supporting brain health across the lifespan." The researchers also examined rare genetic variants previously linked to protection or resilience against Alzheimer's disease.