Derek Thompson

Is it shrinking of some parts of the brain?

What is happening physically to that organ that sits inside of our head as we're getting older that might account for declining memory as we age?

That's a huge, also the- And just to be clear, we don't know why either thing happens, right?

We don't understand where amyloid plaque is coming from necessarily.

And number two, we don't understand why some people might have lots of amyloid plaque in their brains, but they're immune to the kind of memory loss effects that distinguish Alzheimer's patients.

Well, I could have bronchitis.

I could have COVID.

So let's finally get to your most recent paper, which was just about everywhere in the news cycle.

You looked at variables that correlated with several hundred super-agers.

I think I read in the paper there were 290 participants that passed through this study in its 20-year history.

So 20-year history studying the brains of super-agers

To be clear, these are brains of deceased super agers.

We are looking at full naked brains in the lab and getting really, really close examinations of them.

What are you looking for?

So you look at these super-agers, you look at what they have in common, you look at what they don't have in common, and you conclude that they don't seem to have the same diet.

They don't seem to have the same medication.

They don't seem to have a similar set of diseases.

They don't seem to have similar workout routines.

Instead, your paper says the one trait they shared is that they seem to love to socialize.

I think the wording you used in your paper was...