Older adults who feel lonely start with weaker memories. They struggle more on recall tests right from the outset. But their brains don’t fade faster over time. That’s the finding from a major European study tracking more than 10,000 people aged 65 to 94. The research, drawn from the Survey of Health, Ageing and Retirement in Europe (SHARE), followed participants across 12 countries for six years. Loneliness hit immediate and delayed recall scores hard at baseline. Age drove the steepest drops later—especially after 75, and sharper still past 85. Diabetes and depression dragged initial performance down too. Loneliness? It set a lower starting point, without speeding the slide. “It suggests that loneliness may play a more prominent role in the initial state of memory than in its progressive decline,” said Luis Carlos Venegas-Sanabria , lead researcher at Universidad del Rosario’s School of Medicine and Health Sciences. The team published results in Aging & Mental Health .…