Processing speed predicts SuperAging years later

SuperAging is one of the current concepts related to elite, resilient or high-functioning cognitive aging. The main aim of our study was to find possible predictors of SuperAgers (SA).

Community-dwelling older persons (N = 96) aged 80-101 years in 2018 were repeatedly tested (year 2012 and 2018). SA were defined based on their performance in 2018 as persons of 80+ years of age who recalled ≥ 9 words in the delayed recall of the Philadelphia Verbal Learning Test, and had a normal performance in non-memory tasks [the Boston Naming Test, the Trail Making Test Part B, and Category Fluency ("Animals")], which was defined as a score within or above one standard deviation from the age and education appropriate average. Three composite scores (CS; immediate memory, processing speed, and executive functions) were created from the performance in 2012, and analysed as possible predictors of SA status in 2018.

We identified 19 SA (15 females) and 77 nonSA (42 females), groups did not significantly differ in age, years of education, and sex. The logistic regression model (p = 0.028) revealed three predictors of SA from the baseline (year 2012), including processing speed (p = 0.006; CS-speed: the Prague Stroop Test-Dots and the Digit Symbol Substitution Test), sex (p = 0.015), and age (p = 0.045).

Thus, SA may be predicted based on the level of processing speed, which supports the hypothesis of the processing speed theory of healthy aging.