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Some people reach their 80s and 90s with memories as sharp as adults decades younger and longevity fanatics have always wondered why. Scientists have long worked to understand whether these so-called "SuperAgers" simply won the genetic lottery by inheriting little risk for Alzheimer's disease, or if their impressive cognition is down to something else. A new study sought to gain answers.
Researchers led by teams at the Healthy Aging & Alzheimer’s Research Care (HAARC) Center at the University of Chicago and the Translational Genomics Research Institute (TGen) found that SuperAgers cannot be distinguished from their cognitively average peers based on inherited Alzheimer's risk genes.
The findings, published in Alzheimer's Research & Therapy, suggest that exceptional memory in old age depends on something other than simply dodging the disease's genetic risk factors.
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What the Study Found
Dr. Shoshana Ungerleider, an internal medicine physician at General Medicine and host of TED Health, told Newsweek that the research examined 231 adults aged 80 or older, 142 of them SuperAgers and 89 healthy controls with average memory for their age. The SuperAgers had memory abilities similar to, or better than, people in their 50s and 60s. A SuperAger is defined as someone over the age of 80 whose episodic memory performs at least as well as cognitively healthy adults in their 50s and 60s.
"The researchers examined the APOE gene, which is closely linked to Alzheimer's risk, along with three polygenic risk scores that combine many genetic variants," Ungerleider said. "The results were similar in both groups.
"Alzheimer's-related APOE variants were found at nearly the same rates, and none of the genetic risk scores could predict who was a SuperAger."
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The team also studied genetic ancestry and searched for rare variants known to protect against Alzheimer's. Again, they found no meaningful differences between the two groups.
"No obvious genetic advantage," Ungerleider said.
Genes Aren’t Always the Whole Story
According to the findings, while low genetic risk for Alzheimer's might help some avoid dementia or cognitive impairment, it does not explain exceptional memory later in life for others.
"The genes linked to disease risk and the factors linked to outstanding memory may not be the same thing," Ungerleider said.
Study co-first author Ana Capuano, director of the biostatistics core at the HAARC Center, said the results point to a broader picture of brain health.
"The findings reinforce that preserving cognitive health involves more than reducing Alzheimer's disease risk alone," Capuano said in a statement. "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."
Co-senior author Emily Rogalski spoke with Newsweek about the study.
"While advancing age is the greatest risk factor for Alzheimer's disease and related dementias, some people maintain exceptional memory well into their 80s, 90s, and beyond, and understanding how they do that could help us identify new ways to promote brain health across the lifespan," she said. "This finding shifts the conversation from risk to protection.
"The absence of Alzheimer's disease risk factors is not necessarily the same as the presence of factors that actively preserve memory. We believe that understanding what goes right in brain aging is just as important as understanding what goes wrong. Through the multicenter SuperAging Research Initiative, which enrolls participants across the U.S. and Canada, we are taking a multidisciplinary approach to identify the biological, social, and lifestyle factors that support exceptional memory and brain health into very late life. Ultimately, our goal is to translate those discoveries into strategies that help more people maintain cognitive health as they age."
Ungerleider noted that other research has also pointed to differences in brain structure, brain cells and levels of abnormal tau protein among SuperAgers. Lifestyle factors, including education, exercise, mental stimulation and social connection, may also play a role, even when genetic risk is present.
Limitations and Next Steps
Ungerleider cautioned that the study was relatively small for genetic research and only examined participants at a single point in time. It also did not account for lifestyle, behavior or blood vessel health, meaning smaller genetic effects may have gone undetected.
"Current Alzheimer's genetic risk scores cannot predict who will become a SuperAger," Ungerleider said. "They were designed to estimate disease risk, and not exceptional cognitive aging. Genetics is only part of the story, and probably not the biggest part."
Researchers say future work will combine cognitive testing with brain imaging, blood biomarkers, genetics, immune profiling, sleep tracking and social measures to better understand what protects memory in later life. The results, they say, reinforce a hopeful message; that memory decline is not inevitable, and some people can maintain remarkably youthful memory well into their 80s and beyond.
Reference
Piras, I. S., Capuano, W. A., et al. (2026). SuperAging is not the inverse of common-variant Alzheimer’s risk: evidence across genetic ancestries. Alzheimer's Research & Therapy. https://doi.org/10.1186/s13195-026-02124-2.
Contact Newsweek editors on this story: Kara Dolman and Gray R. Thomas
Update, 31/07/2026 08:29 a.m. ET: Updated with comment from the study's co-senior author, Emily Rogalski.
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