Flourishing and “Super-Agers”
On January 11, 2022, the Harvard Gazette described a group of researchers at Harvard University and Baylor University whose $43.4 million Global Flourishing Study is being launched this month. The team will follow roughly 240,000 participants from 22 countries over five years to gather data on which individuals or nations are flourishing and why, or why not.
They believe this is “the first research to take a global, longitudinal approach in an attempt to find causal links between well-being and specific character traits — like extroversion or optimism — practices, communities, relationships, or religions. If successful, the survey could later be administered as a kind of diagnostic test to prescribe interventions, similar to exercise and heart-healthy diets for cardiovascular disease.”
Many people in the United States are unaware that people in poorer, developing countries typically have a greater sense of meaning and purpose. They also tend to have stronger relationships. In contrast, people from wealthier countries tend to have higher levels of happiness and life satisfaction. The authors discuss how much more difficult it is to measure love, happiness, etc. especially given the challenges of the words different languages have.
Another group of researchers at Harvard Medical School and Massachusetts General Hospital is investigating “super-agers” – elderly people who maintain sharp memories and avoid the typical age-related declines most elderly confront. Assistant Professor of Neurology Alexandra Touroutoglou, director of imaging operations at MGH’s Frontotemporal Disorders Unit, is part of that research team and was interviewed by the Harvard Gazette in January 2022.
Dr. Touroutoglou explains that atrophy of brains is normal, even when it is not enough to be pathological. She adds, “memory decline is common, but not inevitable; we found that super-agers defy this age-related decline in brain power. Somehow, they manage to avoid the brain shrinkage, avoid the disruption in communication between brain regions important for memory. And their memories are as strong as those of young adults.” She also says that the more resilient brain of the super-agers may make them more resilient to other stressors.
Their MRI research finds super-agers have greater thickness in the cortex in regions associated with memory (e.g., the hippocampus), attention, and executive processing. There is also greater connectivity among brain regions, especially the visual cortex. This means that they are better able to remember and to create distinct memory representations. They are currently investigating whether noninvasive brain stimulation can increase the neuroplasticity of the anterior midcingulate, which integrates information from different parts of the brain and relates to memory, attention, executive function, and motivation.
As the number of elderly continues to grow, these studies offer potential assistance to those who diagnose and treat elderly clients and encourage us to be as intent on facilitating optimal aging as we have been to facilitate optimal early development.