8 - The Superaging Research Initiative: Identifying Protective Factors to Promote Healthspan

The SuperAging Research Initiative is a multisite consortium focused on identifying factors promoting superior memory performance beyond the 8th decade. The designation of SuperAger is reserved for individuals age 80+ who have episodic memory capacity that would be considered at least average for those in their 50s and 60s. The original study of SuperAgers emerged more than a decade ago at Northwestern and helped establish the phenotype. The SuperAging Research Initiative is a multisite study established in 2021 with enrollment across five sites in the U.S. and Canada. The SuperAging Research Initiative is focused on increasing minority representation, expanding deep phenotyping, and identifying protective factors important for healthspan. Dr. Rogalski will provide an overview of the SuperAging Research Initiative including rationale, known features, current progress, and new directions. Dr. Cook Maher will provide insights on outreach, recruitment, and engagement approaches. Dr. Roberts will describe the innovative remote data collection protocol and initial observations from the wearable technology used in the study, which is designed to quantify measurements of daily life including sleep, physical activity, autonomic responsivity, and social engagement. The SuperAging Research Initiative has unique potential to address questions of fundamental importance to the neurobiology of brain aging, resilience, resistance, and avoidance of cognitive decline associated with typical aging and with Alzheimer’s disease.