Super-agers — people 80 and older who've got the memory ability of someone 30 years younger — don't have the same diet, medication or workout routine.

• But there is a trait they share, The New York Times reports (gift link): They love to socialize.

Why it matters: Researchers believe continuing to see family and friends as we age can prolong the health of our brains.

🔭 Zoom out: These findings come from an ongoing study at Northwestern of super-agers that began in 2000.

• In a new paper, out today, researchers detail their first 25 years of findings.

Super-agers are united by "how they view the importance of social relationships … And personality-wise, they tend to be on the extroverted side," Sandra Weintraub, one of the Northwestern researchers, told The Times.

🧠 Zoom in: We know that our brains atrophy with age. That's partly because aging typically comes with increased isolation and loneliness, which can bump up levels of cortisol — the stress hormone — in our brains, damaging brain cells and increasing dementia risk.

• But socialization is the loneliness antidote and could be helping super-agers avoid this decline, The Times notes.

⏰ Stunning stat: Northwestern researchers found that the brains of super-agers in their 80s and 90s more closely resembled those of people in their 50s and 60s than their own age group.

Case in point: Consider the social schedules of Ralph Rehbock and Leigh Steinman, two super-agers interviewed by The Times' Dana G. Smith.

1. 🎶 "On the first Friday of every month, Ralph, 91, joins a group of older men at a synagogue outside of Chicago for a meeting of MEL: Men Enjoying Leisure. Every Friday afternoon, he performs classics from the 1930s and '40s with the Meltones, the club's singing group. And he's shared his story of escape from Nazi Germany with thousands of school children over the years, through his work with the Illinois Holocaust Museum & Education Center."
2. 🎨 "Leigh, 82, spends much of his time working on art projects with the children who live in his Chicago neighborhood and watching the Cubs play at Wrigley Field, which is just a block away. He worked at the stadium as a security guard for 17 years before retiring at the beginning of the pandemic … but he still walks over three or four times a week during the summer to see former co-workers and fellow fans."

The bottom line: The strength of our connections with friends, family and community members is one of simplest yet most effective levers we can control to live longer, healthier lives.

Sail into the weekend with this snap from reader Ashley Corso of a couple of crisp beers at Map Brewing in Bozeman, Mont.