Some 80-year-olds remember like 30-year-olds — and their genes may hold a clue

They are called SuperAgers: people past 80 whose memory performs like that of someone decades younger. In a study of 18,080 people across eight ageing research cohorts, scientists identified 1,623 of them and compared their versions of the APOE gene — one variant of which raises Alzheimer's risk, another of which seems to protect. SuperAgers were less likely to carry the risk variant and more likely to carry the protective one, even compared with other healthy people their age. The work, published in Alzheimer's & Dementia, does not make genes destiny — but it maps one source of the brain's resilience.

SDG 3 · Good health and well-being