Successful Aging: A Neuroscientist Explores the Power and Potential of Our Lives

by Daniel J. Levitin

There are definite things we can do to dampen the ill effects of memory loss, perceptual loss, and the shrinking social circles that often accompany aging. We can fight to reverse the tendency to narrow our interests, to become set in our ways, and to fear even moderate risk taking. We can learn to exploit the wisdom and skills that we have attained, becoming much-sought-after friends, rather than forgotten old people.

What decisions can we make, both ahead of time and in the present moment, that will maximize our life satisfaction and infuse our lives with meaning?

when you’re at the end of your life, lying on your deathbed, the research literature strongly predicts you won’t be saying, “I wish I had spent more time on Facebook.” Instead, you’ll probably be saying, “I wish I had spent more time with loved ones,” or, “I wish I had done more to make a difference in the world.”

When older people look back on their lives and are asked to pinpoint the age at which they were happiest, what do you suppose they say? Maybe age eight, when they had few cares? Maybe their teenage years because of all the activity and the discovery of sex? Maybe their college years, or the first years of starting a family? Wrong. The age that comes up most often as the happiest time of one’s life is eighty-two!

PART ONE THE CONTINUALLY DEVELOPING BRAIN

What are the determinants in how we age? The different systems in our brains age at different rates. Some systems decline as others actually increase in efficiency and effectiveness. The basic message we hear in popular culture, that aging is a time of unmitigated decline, is not accurate. Yes, some things do slow down, but our health, happiness, and mental sparkle need not.

In fact, the biggest single determinant of living a productive and happy life is something that you’re born with (partly) and something that you can decide to change: your personality.

Even more subtle behaviors can influence outcomes many decades later: Early and compulsive exposure to the sun and sun tanning; poor dental hygiene; poor exercise habits; and obesity all take their toll.

“Lack of self-control may result in behaviors that increase the probability of exposure to dangerous or traumatic situations and adversely affect health through long-lasting biological consequences of stress.”

Often one of the first indications of a problem with your brain is a change in personality. And in the past few years, developmental science has shown that people, even older adults, can meaningfully change—we do not have to live out a life that was paved for us by genetics, environment, and opportunity.

The idea that people retain the capacity to change throughout their life span didn’t take hold until the midseventies,

Not everyone takes advantage of this capacity, but it is there, like the ability to adjust your diet or your wardrobe. The events of your childhood can be overcome and transformed based on experiences you have later in life.

Of course, the idea that people can change is the entire basis of modern psychotherapy. People seek psychiatrists and psychologists because they want to change, and modern psychiatry and psychology are largely effective in treating or curing a great number of mental disorders and stressors, especially phobias, anxiety, stress disorders, relationship problems, and mild to moderate depression. Some of these volitional changes revolve around improved lifestyle choices, while others entail changing our personalities, sometimes only slightly, to give us the best chance of aging well.

To implement the changes that will be most effective, each of us might think about the fundamental components of how we are now, how we used to be, and how we’d like to be.

Traits are probabilistic descriptions of behavior. Someone who is described as high on one trait (having a lot of it) will display that trait more often and more intensely than someone low on that trait. Someone who is agreeable has a greater probability of displaying agreeableness than someone who is disagreeable, but disagreeable people are still agreeable some of the time, just as introverts are extraverted some of the time.

Culture plays a role as well, both macro- and microculture. What is considered shy, reserved behavior in the United States (macrolevel culture) might be regarded as perfectly normal in Japan.

Booker T. Washington wrote that “character, not circumstance,” makes the person. Ralph Waldo Emerson wrote, “No change of circumstances can repair a defect of character.” While character makes for a good story or poem, in reality we are less shaped by character traits than we think, and more than we realize by the circumstances that life deals us—and our responses to those circumstances.

Some children who were (or felt) abandoned by their parents grow up to be well-adjusted, do-gooding members of society; others become axe murderers. Resilience, grit, and gratitude for the small things in life (“at least I still have food to eat”) are personality traits that are unevenly distributed in the population.

Genes can be present in your body but in a dormant state, waiting for the right environmental trigger to activate them—what is called gene expression. A traumatic experience, a good or bad diet, how and when you sleep, or contact with an inspiring role model can cause chemical modifications to your genes that in turn cause them to wake up and become activated, or to go to sleep and turn off.

if your genes constrain the auditory memory circuits in your brain—perhaps because they favor visual-spatial cognition—you’re unlikely to become a superstar musician no matter how many lessons you take, because musicianship relies on auditory memory.

Your genes, then, give you a kind of life script with only the most general things sketched out. And from there, you can improvise. Culture affects the ways you interpret that script, as do opportunity and circumstance. And then, once you interpret the script, it influences the way others respond to you. Those responses in your social world can change your brain’s wiring and chemistry, in turn affecting how you’ll respond to future events and which genes turn on and off—over and over again, cascading in complexity.

cultural values map onto particular personality traits: spontaneity, conscientiousness, and willingness (or at least ability) to follow rules. Culture is a potent factor in who we become. The third part of the developmental triad is opportunity. Opportunity and circumstance play a larger part in behavior than most of us appreciate, and they do this in two different ways: how the world treats us, and the situations we find (or put) ourselves in.

These factors influence our development, but again, as with genes, they are not deterministic—we can break free of them to improvise, to create our own futures, but it takes some effort

people within a culture share beliefs about how personality traits are linked to physical characteristics.

There are thousands and thousands of different words used to describe personality traits—in English, there are 4,500 of them in Webster’s Unabridged Dictionary, and more than 450 in current and common use.

collaborative, open to new experience, agreeable, and at least slightly extraverted.

The Big Five dimensions are: Extraversion Agreeableness Conscientiousness Emotional Stability versus Neuroticism Openness to Experience + Intellect (also called Imagination)

EXTRAVERSION includes talkative, bold, energetic,

People who score high on the Extraversion dimension tend to be comfortable around other people, start conversations, and don’t mind being the center of attention.

AGREEABLENESS includes warm, cooperative, generous,

People who score high on this dimension tend to be interested in other people, sympathize with others’ feelings, and make people feel at ease.

CONSCIENTIOUSNESS includes organized, responsible, careful, and practical,

People who score high on this dimension tend to be prepared, be diligent, pay attention to details, and do what they say they will do.

EMOTIONAL STABILITY includes stable, contented, and at ease,

People who score high on this dimension are not easily bothered by things, are relaxed, and don’t change their moods a lot.

OPENNESS (also called INTELLECT and IMAGINATION) includes curious, intelligent, and creative,

It includes cognitive and behavioral flexibility. People who score high on this dimension are quick to understand things, have a vivid imagination, and like trying new things, new restaurants, and going to new places. It is separate from intellectual ability but speaks to a propensity to enjoy intellectual, cultural, aesthetic, and artistic experiences.

The drive to organize people’s traits into categories is ancient; astrology is one such attempt to assign personalities to people systematically, depending on when they were born. While it is still popular throughout the world, it has no scientific basis. Sure, you may know a Capricorn who is stubborn, but statistically, you’re just as likely to find stubborn Leos, Libras, and Sagittarians.

Conscientiousness, Agreeableness, and Emotional Stability can be thought of as reflecting a tendency toward reducing unwanted drama in our lives, and evidence is mounting that these are influenced by serotonin. Openness and Extraversion reflect a general tendency to explore and engage with possibilities, and these appear to be influenced by dopamine.

Temperament versus Personality

Babies are born with certain predispositions—a pattern of individual differences in how they react to different situations, as well as the regulation of those patterns. In babies and children, these patterns are usually called temperament, whereas in adults these patterns are called personality. Temperament and the young child’s early life experiences contribute to growing a personality.

A child who grows up in an environment with many dangers and hazards will surely view the world differently than one who is nurtured and sheltered. The fascinating thing is that personality development doesn’t always go the way one might predict. You might think that a child who grows up in a dangerous environment will learn to be fearful and will develop a fearful, anxious, and perhaps neurotic personality. This can certainly occur. But a different child, with different genetic predispositions, uterine environment, and parenting may become fearless, brave, and challenge seeking.

Temperament becomes personality as the child develops its own values, attitudes, and coping strategies.

And it is biologically based, linked to, but not completely determined by, an ind...

what are the trends? Older adults tend to be better at controlling impulses; that is, they’re better at self-control and self-discipline and tend to be better at rule-following than young adults—traits that have to do with Factor III (Conscientiousness). Self-control increases steadily every decade after the age of twenty. Some of this has to do with the development of the prefrontal cortex, which continues through the early twenties,

Flexibility—your ability to easily adapt to changes in plans or to your environment—decreases steadily in every decade after twenty. With age, men typically show increased emotional sensitivity, and women experience decreasing emotional vulnerability. As you might expect—and may have experienced yourself—Openness increases around adolescence, but then declines with age.

older adults are generally more concerned with making a good impression and with cooperating and getting along with others—Agreeableness increases substantially. They show increased Emotional Stability and calm as well.

Older adults are less likely to engage in risky or thrill-seeking behaviors and tend to be more morally responsible and less open to new experience. In terms of the Big Five factor model, older people show declines in Extraversion and Openness and increases in Emotional Stability and Agreeableness.

By late adolescence and early adulthood, people become more independent and begin investing in their education and career. Success in these domains depends very much on being reliable, dependable, and competent. Prior to this period, there is probably less need to behave conscientiously because parents and institutions are in place to guide people through life. For some, Conscientiousness declines after retirement not because the brain has changed but because there is less need to be a hardworking, driven personality—it seems okay to loosen one’s grip a bit and enjoy la dolce vita.

Health challenges present us with a stark choice and an opportunity to mold our personalities: Am I someone who folds up and gives in, or do I double down, embrace resilience and optimism, and try to make the best of the time I have left?