Resilience to Stress as a Possible Mechanism for Cognitive SuperAging

Many cognitive studies of aging find that average neuropsychological test scores decline with each decade of life beyond age 50, a trajectory commonly known as "normal aging". Although most aging studies suggest these age-related declines in cognition are "normal" and inevitable, some exceptional older individuals exhibit cognitive test scores that are significantly higher than the average score expected for their age. In our laboratory, we have identified a group of individuals who we have labeled as "cognitive SuperAgers" and who are characterized very specifically by better-than-average-for-age episodic memory performance. Many relatively unexplored factors may influence whether individuals enter the cognitive SuperAging trajectory. This study focuses on one personality factor, resilience, that may facilitate better than average cognitive performance in older adults.;The current study investigated the hypothesis that cognitive SuperAgers are more resilient to stress than Normal Agers by examining the differences between these two groups in both their response to a specific stressor (state resilience) and their self-reported general style of coping (trait resilience). To investigate differences in state resilience between the two groups, cognitive test scores, mood ratings, and blood pressure measurements were obtained before and after an experimental stress induction procedure and mood ratings and blood pressure were measured after a recovery period. To investigate differences in trait resilience, both groups completed questionnaires surveying components of this trait.;Results suggested that, although SuperAgers' initial physiological and emotional responses to the acute experimental stress induction were similar to Normal Agers, SuperAgers "bounced back" emotionally during the stress recovery period, whereas Normal Agers did not. In addition, SuperAgers reported greater levels of trait resilience than Normal Agers. These results indicate that cognitive SuperAgers possess more state and trait resilience than cognitive Normal Agers, as exhibited by their quicker emotional recovery from an acute stressor and higher ratings of trait resilience. This study provides evidence that resilience to stress may be a potential mechanism facilitating cognitive SuperAging.