The population of older adults is rapidly increasing. Older age presumably comes with both physical and cognitive challenges. Therefore, the many factors that promote healthy aging continue to be investigated. One specific factor this research is focused on is brain aging. As we age, our brain begins to deteriorate over time in both structure and function. The ability to preserve or even rejuvenate these areas of the brain is necessary to promote not only brain health but also cognition.
Parental longevity is having one or more parents that live at or above the age of 85. The case has been made that these offspring are the ideal models to study health aging. These offspring experience longer health span and lifespan despite no observed differences in areas such as smoking, diet, physical activity. Therefore, there must be other factors that make this group of individuals unique.
The study population for this study is offspring whose parents lived exceptionally long vs. those who didn’t. Our aim is to examine how their brain differs in structure and function. We also want to see how performing everyday basic tasks or genetics may affect brain structure and function within this group of adults. This would be a 2-year project that allow us to look at differences as well as changes over time to better understand what is going on as we age.
This will add to the already limited amount of research on the structural brain differences between those deemed as “healthy agers”. Understanding the areas that contribute to this construct and how they relate to factors such as movement and memory can help determine how to help older adults who will likely face health challenges later in life.
