Love the Long Life

In one of my recent pieces, I found that there’s something called the paradox of emotional aging where older people, despite what it would seem, are able to enjoy their lives very much so (on average) and are pretty emotionally happy. And while I explained some of the psychological theories behind it in the article, I still felt there was definitely more to the story, so I did some digging and found some neurological causes, which really helped me understand the “paradox” and hopefully help you too. 

To start us off, the brain is made up of a billion tiny little cells called neurons. Each of these neurons has to talk to the other neurons in order to get anything done, and this is done through little messengers called neurotransmitters. The one that we’re going to put the spotlight on today is called dopamine, which is commonly known as the happy hormone. Cute name, right? It’s true, for the most part. Dopamine does so much more than make you happy, it plays a role in literally everything you want- ever. So whether that means going on a shopping spree and spending thousands of dollars or simply wanting a hug from your mom, dopamine is probably behind it. 

You might be thinking, well, that’s great and all, but what does dopamine have to do with emotional aging? Well, actually, a lot. You see, there are two receptors for dopamine in the brain, D1, and D2. Imagine receptors like little gloves on the hands of each neuron waiting to “catch” a “message,” aka neurotransmitter, from the first neuron. This well-cited study by Brandon Aragona from Florida State University found a big increase in D2 receptors during periods of intimacy between already-established partner pairs, while D1 receptors decreased. What’s more, if D1 and D2 were added at the same time, partner preference (one partner choosing to be with their second half as opposed to someone unfamiliar) caused by the D2 activation would be prevented by the D1 activation. If we broaden the idea of intimacy and friendship to mean romantic and compassionate love as we know it, we might be able to apply Aragona’s finding and say lots of D1 receptors play a role in falling in love, while lots of D2 receptors play a role in staying in love. It’s a tiny distinction, but one that means a lot for what we’re about to discuss next. 

I could talk about that study alone for the rest of the article because it’s so fascinating. But our topic is not the difference between D1 and D2, it’s the reason why older people are happier despite their age. In this popular study from the journal Neurobiology of Aging, older adults were tested on tasks of short-term memory and thinking performance against younger adults. The researchers put all participants through an fMRI and then looked at the brain images the machine created, specifically looking at a region in the brain known to normally have a lot of dopamine- the caudate nucleus. And guess what they found in older people? Lower D1 receptors, but not D2. So did this study. And this study. You get the idea. 

The point is, D1 receptors seem to decrease with age. But D2 is still about the same. Taking into account the first study we talked about, theoretically, this means older people are better at staying in love, even if they can’t form new relationships easily anymore. And if you remember the psychological theories I talked about in my article, this makes perfect sense. Psychology says older people selectively optimize their lives by prioritizing and choosing the goals they want the most and the relationships they want to maintain the most. Neuroscience says D1 receptors start to fail with age, leaving D2 receptors in charge of the brain, so to speak. Falling in love is not as easy, but staying in love is, and may even get stronger. 

Do we have more answers now? Sure, but in science, you can never ask too many questions. Regardless, after reading this article, I hope you all will take a minute or two to really think about love in old age, and eventually, you just might learn to truly love the long life. 

— Allie Yuxin Lin