It’s funny how often health advice can sound like a barrage of thinly veiled insults. “That’s enough alcohol for you.” “Perhaps you should aim for fewer calories.” And my personal favourite as a hermit writer: “You need to get out more.”
You hear all three whenever the social calendar ramps up – weddings, reunions, birthday parties, long-overdue catch-ups. But there’s something about saying yes to invitations that can be very good for you indeed: regular gatherings might put you at an advantage later in life (so long as you don’t go crazy at the bar or the buffet, of course).
Research into a group of people that scientists call ‘superagers’ has found that those of us who show signs of extroversion, or who are more engaged in social activities and value interpersonal relationships, may live longer. Not only that, their brains stay sharper for longer, often reporting memory scores equal to people 20 or 30 years younger.
“There’s something special about being able to live to 80 and still have the cognitive performance of a 60-year-old,” says Prof Emily Rogalski, a neurologist at the University of Chicago. Since the early 2000s, she has been running what’s known as the ‘Superager’ study, a long-term research project designed to understand the characteristics of successful ageing.
“We’ve looked at lifestyle factors. We’ve looked at genetic factors. We’ve looked at brain structure, brain function. We now have superagers wearing sensors in their daily life so that we can get a better understanding of sleep, of activity, but also of social connection,” Rogalski says.
A recent review of the studies done so far shows that superagers are a diverse group, but one consistent finding is that they score higher for extroversion on self-scored personality tests.
“We see that superagers are often engaged,” Rogalski says. “To me, though, it’s more than extroversion. It’s curiosity, resilience and, for many, the tie that binds them is that they enjoy that connection with others.”
If you’re more extroverted, that might mean being with lots of people all the time. But for other people, it can be closer connections with a small group of friends. Both count, Rogalski says.
“Our brains love to be challenged,” she says. “And if you think about what it takes to be socially connected, it’s actually a lot of work. I’m talking with you right now. I know you’re going to ask me another question, but I don’t know exactly what that question is going to be. And my brain gets to do a lot of mental gymnastics deciding how to answer. That’s really good for my brain.”
Social connections may even build a kind of physical resilience in the brains of superagers. Rogalski and her colleagues have found that their brains suffer less shrinkage with age. The outer layer of the brain, the cortex, is thicker in superagers than in cognitively average 80-year-olds.
A region of the brain involved in attention, called the anterior cingulate, is thicker too – even compared to 50 or 60-year-olds. And superagers have an abundance of a particular kind of brain cell, called von Economo neurons.
How does this translate into behaviour and personality? “Well, our oldest superager is 111,” says Rogalski. “I’m sure you’re conjuring in your mind what it looks like to be 111. But I’ll tell you, we celebrated her birthday and she was yelling at her daughter for not bringing the correct ingredients for her banana bread and the chocolate-covered strawberries she wanted to make for her friends. She made us homemade wine.
“So this isn’t a 111-year-old who’s sitting around doing nothing. She’s quite active.”
The superaging research tallies with other work on older populations. Studies have found that different forms of social activities and engagement can slow cognitive decline. These include volunteering, music interventions like choir singing and art lessons. Likewise, social isolation and loneliness are linked to increased odds of cognitive decline and dementia.
Rogalski thinks that superagers still have lots more to teach us about healthy ageing. In the meantime, perhaps we shouldn’t duck out of every invitation. The next dinner, party or catch-up could be doing your brain a quiet favour.
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