Neuroscience and Aging with Vitality and Happiness

“A smart person knows how to talk. A wise person knows when to be silent.” – Roy T. Bennett

WHAT NEUROSCIENCE CAN TELL US ABOUT AGING BETTER

When you think of old age, what comes to mind? Slowing down? Being forgetful? Not feeling quite as sharp?

Jill Suttie of Greater Good Magazine recently sat down with neuroscientist, Daniel Levitin, to talk about what neuroscience can teach us about aging well with more vitality and happiness.

Levitin is a neuroscientist, psychologist, professor emeritus at McGill University in Montreal, and faculty fellow at UC Berkeley. In his book, Successful Aging: A Neuroscientist Explores the Power and Potential of Our Lives, he gives insights into how early childhood experiences, personalities, social relationships, and lifestyles all directly contribute to a brain’s development, thus taking the task the misconception that cognitive decline is inevitable in older age.

He argues against ageism and for the need to change the conversation about aging and the importance of placing more value on older adults for their experience and what they can contribute to society.

Levitin also shows us what we all can do to become sharper, happier, and wiser as we age.