Celebrating 25 years of the Northwestern University SuperAging Program

Dear Mesulam Center Community,

Aging deserves a more upbeat public image — it must be more widely recognized that there is more to aging than memory loss and dementia. The Mesulam Center for Cognitive Neurology and Alzheimer's Disease initiated the Northwestern University SuperAging Program (NUSAP) 25 years ago to show that the preservation of memory into the 80’s and beyond does happen and that a long life does not necessarily lead to Alzheimer’s disease. The more we understand about SuperAging the more plausible it becomes to uncover the corresponding lifestyle and biological factors.

This year, we celebrate a quarter century of SuperAging research at Northwestern. We coined the term “SuperAging” in the 1990s after encountering older research participants with no evidence of the “normal” cognitive decline presumed to be inherent to aging. As we built NUSAP, we developed a specific definition of this cognitive aging trajectory—persons 80 years and above with memory performance that is on par with persons in their 50s and 60s. This impressive group of older adults support the existence of many possible aging trajectories, not all of which conform to the long-held expectation of inevitable decline in late life. At the Mesulam Center, we have enrolled and followed SuperAgers longitudinally for over 20 years and have uncovered many incredible findings about SuperAgers during this time.

We are immensely grateful to all of our SuperAging participants for generously donating their time and wisdom year after year. SuperAging research is ongoing at the Mesulam Center. Based on our many years of experience, we have adapted our study procedures so there is space for new, innovative research questions. We look forward to continuing to work together to expand our understanding of the unique brain features of SuperAgers.

Warm Regards,
Robert Vassar, PhD, Marsel Mesulam, MD, and Sandra Weintraub, PhD