PROJECT SUMMARY (Clinical / Imaging): Memory complaints are widespread among the elderly and aging is a major risk factor for Alzheimer's disease (AD), leading to the impression that a gradual loss of memory ability, eventually culminating in dementia, may be a nearly universal consequence of getting old. This Consortium will explore an alternative aging trajectory by studying 80+ year-olds that we have labelled `SuperAgers', who have episodic memory performance that appears to have escaped age-related decline and that remains in the range that is at least normal for 50-60- year-olds and. The study of SuperAgers was initiated at Northwestern University and will be extended through this Consortium. The Clinical/Imaging Core of the SuperAging Consortium will establish standardized inclusion criteria and uniform assessments for the harmonized cross-site characterization of SuperAgers and their Controls. Aim 1 will coordinate enrollment and harmonized data collection on at least 500 participants (300 SuperAgers, 200 Controls) across the United States and Canada into a prospective longitudinal study, which includes health, lifestyle, and neurocognitive assessments, as well as MR imaging, blood samples, and eventual brain donation. Particular emphasis will be placed on enhancing recruitment of diverse participants from Sites with strengths in recruitment and sophisticated characterization of older adults. Aim 2 will support studies that confirm and extend previous findings in a larger and more diverse cohort as well as identification of new factors associated with unusually successful aging. Aim 3 will launch new directions of investigation through the support of the two Projects associated with this Consortium and collaborative investigations. Outcomes from this Consortium will substantially increase the depth and breadth of investigations on unusually successful cognitive aging. The factors to be identified will be directly relevant to sustained cognitive health in late life and to the concepts of resilience, resistance and cognitive reserve.