Functional brain signatures of successful cognitive aging

Cognitive aging trajectories vary markedly. While many older adults experience gradual decline in memory and executive function, some maintain high cognitive performance well into advanced age. Understanding the neural mechanisms underlying this variability carries important implications for early detection of unfavorable aging trajectories and the development of interventions. Here, we review functional brain signatures associated with successful cognitive aging in humans, integrating evidence from functional magnetic resonance imaging and electroencephalography within a unified conceptual framework of brain maintenance and compensation. Across both modalities, evidence increasingly links successful cognitive aging to the preservation of youth-like neural dynamics, while the contribution of compensatory neural recruitment remains empirically contested and methodologically difficult to establish.