Skip to main content

Learn About SuperAging

The Northwestern University SuperAging Research Program (NUSAP) was designed to approach aging and Alzheimer’s disease differently. Instead of studying the negative consequences of aging and disease, the program is identifying and factors that allow for a unique aging trajectory where individuals maintain youthful memory function. 

"SuperAgers" are defined as adults over age 80 who have the memory abilities at least at the level of individuals 20-30 years younger. The primary goal of this research is to identify factors that may help others maximize their healthspan and may be important for avoiding Alzheimer’s disease pathology or its effects. We are still enrolling SuperAgers!  Learn more, join here.

For questions about the Northwestern University SuperAging Research Program you can email agingresearch@northwestern.edu or call 312.908.9339.

Celebrating 25 Years of SuperAging at Northwestern

The Mesulam Center for Cognitive Neurology and Alzheimer's Disease initiated the Northwestern University SuperAging Program (NUSAP) 25 years ago to show that the preservation of memory into the 80’s and beyond does happen and that a long life does not necessarily lead to Alzheimer’s disease. We are immensely grateful to all of our participants for generously donating their time and wisdom year after year and look forward to continue working together for many years to come.

Read our full statement

Celebrating 25 Years of SuperAging at Northwestern

About the Study

Learn more about the SuperAging study. 

Learn More About SuperAging

History of SuperAging

Learn more about the history of the Northwestern Unversity SuperAging Program. 

Coming Soon

Researchers and Collaborators

View additional information for researchers and collaborators. 

Coming Soon
"My intent is not to praise aging but rather to guard against the automatic assumption that neuronal attrition is synonymous with intellectual decline. The stellar examples of Anne Freud, Pablo Casals and Immanuel Kent remind us that senescence is not always devoid of genius. Are these merely expressions of anomalous nervous systems with such reserve power that they remain unperturbed by the attrition of aging, or do they illustrate the more general phenomenon that good aging is a real possibility? Perhaps a concerted belief that good aging is a biological option will refocus research away involutional features and more towards the mechanisms involved in the establishment and maintenance of that elusive quality called wisdom."

- Marsel Mesulam, MD
"Involutional and developmental implications of age-related neuronal changes: in search of an engram for wisdom"
Neurobiology of Aging, 1987

Follow Mesulam Center on Facebook