What’s the key to aging well? If you’re curious about the answer, you may already be on the right track, according to a group of UCLA psychologists. Their research suggests that maintaining curiosity and a desire to learn new things, even in later life, could counteract or even prevent dementia. Conversely, those who are apathetic and disinterested may be at greater risk of developing neurodegenerative diseases.
What types of curiosity exist?
Curiosity is not a unitary phenomenon; it can manifest itself transiently or as a more stable personality trait. Therefore, we can distinguish between two types of curiosity: state and trait.
Trait curiosity is a relatively stable personality characteristic . It refers to a stable inclination toward discovery, taking an interest in the world, actively seeking out new information, and enjoying learning and exploration.
People with high trait curiosity tend to:
- Ask lots of questions
- Enjoy the challenges
- Feeling motivated by the unknown
- Actively seek out new experiences
In fact, trait curiosity is associated with openness to experience, creativity, resilience, and greater psychological well-being. It’s like having an “internal engine” that constantly drives us to discover.
Curiosity is a momentary impulse that arises in response to a specific stimulus. It’s more transient and context-dependent. It’s triggered when something sparks our interest, especially if we feel we’re lacking information or something intrigues or surprises us.
- It appears when something new or strange captures our attention
- The information is incomplete or ambiguous
- Desire to find an answer to calm the “discomfort” of not knowing
- Experience a kind of “cognitive urgency” that disappears when the doubt is resolved
- Emotional activation in the face of surprise, novelty or the unexpected
Some people, for example, might not be very curious by nature; they generally accept things as they come and don’t investigate further (trait curiosity). However, they might occasionally feel curious about a topic or have a specific hobby that they delve into more deeply than usual (state curiosity).
Obviously, we all have varying degrees of trait and state curiosity. However, science has confirmed that trait curiosity tends to decline with age. As we accumulate more life experiences and knowledge, it’s normal for our range of new things to become narrower, and therefore, we become less curious than when we were children or adolescents and had the whole world to discover.
However, this isn’t a rule that applies to everyone. Many older adults continue to display a very curious attitude and are interested in learning new things or developing new skills. This drive also responds to a state of curiosity.
Remain curious as the years go by
To distinguish between the two types of curiosity, the researchers recruited people aged 20 to 84, who completed a questionnaire assessing their level of trait curiosity. They then asked them to guess the answers to difficult questions, such as: “Which was the first country to give women the right to vote?”
The researchers then asked them how interested they were in the answers to assess their level of state curiosity. They found that both types of curiosity are correlated: people who are more naturally curious also have a higher state curiosity, which shouldn’t be surprising.
However, they also discovered other interesting correlations. They found that trait curiosity tends to decline throughout adulthood. And that people’s interest in learning new things, a measure of state curiosity, varies throughout life. It declines in early adulthood, but can then increase significantly after middle age and continue to grow well into old age.
In other words, aging doesn’t “kill curiosity.” On the contrary, it helps us age better mentally.
Why is curiosity good for the brain?
These psychologists believe that “as we get older, we don’t want to stop learning, we are simply more selective about what we want to incorporate […] As we get older, we may want to focus on what is most important and discard what is less relevant to us.”
In fact, state curiosity can be beneficial for multiple reasons:
- It activates multiple cognitive networks. Curiosity demands sustained attention, working memory, reasoning, emotional processing, and decision-making. This kind of “cognitive cocktail” stimulates the brain as a whole, creating new synaptic connections and strengthening existing ones.
- Promotes neuroplasticity. Exposure to new experiences and learning activates neurogenesis, especially in the hippocampus, a key memory region that is often affected in dementia. This process helps the brain respond better to aging, remaining active for longer.
- Dopamine, the motivational neurotransmitter, increases. When we feel curious, the brain releases dopamine, which increases the motivation to learn and improves memory consolidation. Furthermore, dopamine helps counteract the dopaminergic decline associated with aging and diseases like Parkinson’s.
- Strengthens cognitive reserve. Cognitive reserve is the brain’s ability to compensate for damage or aging through greater development of efficient neural networks. People who remain mentally active and curious throughout life tend to develop greater cognitive reserve, meaning that even if they suffer from dementia, the symptoms will take longer to manifest or will be less intense.
Curiosity doesn’t just keep your brain sharp: it reminds you that you still have something to discover. And no, you don’t need to major in astrophysics or learn five languages. Sometimes, it’s enough to ask yourself questions you’ve never thought about before, prepare a completely new dish, or dare to learn something new that motivates you.
It’s not about accumulating knowledge, but rather keeping the flame of wonder burning. As long as you keep asking yourself “Why?”, your brain will keep responding, “Let’s investigate!” And that can make the difference between a mind that slowly fades away and one that continues connecting, learning, and enjoying the world.
References:
Mary, C. et. Al. (2025) Curiosity across the adult lifespan: Age-related differences in state and trait curiosity. PLOSOne ; 20 (5): e0320600.
Daffner, K. R. et. Al. (1992) Diminished curiosity in patients with probable Alzheimer’s disease as measured by exploratory eye movements. Neurology ; 42(2): 320-328.
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