Add Yahoo as a preferred source to see more of our stories on Google. Older adults who remain cognitively sharp as they age have a genetic advantage over their peers, new research shows.

Older adults who remain cognitively sharp as they age have a genetic advantage over their peers, new research shows. Scientists at the University of Illinois College of Medicine Chicago found that so-called super-agers generate twice as many new neurons in the hippocampus -- a part of the brain critical to learning and memory -- as typical older adults.

People who have razor-sharp minds in their 80s and 90s -- known as "SuperAgers" -- produce twice the number of young neurons as cognitively healthy adults and 2.