What happens in the brain when we learn later in life?

Harvard Health Publishing explains that the brain can continue to learn and adapt as we age (Train Your Brain, 2024). Neuroplasticity is the brain’s capacity to adapt in response to experience. When we practice something unfamiliar, the brain can change how it uses the networks involved in doing that task. Think about the difference between reading about a new skill and having to do it yourself. You have to pay attention, remember what you tried, notice what went wrong and decide what to do next.

Researchers at the University of Texas at Dallas tested this idea in the Synapse Project. Older adults spent about three months learning digital photography, quilting or both. As a group, participants learning these demanding skills improved more on tests of episodic memory than participants doing less demanding activities. Episodic memory helps us recall events and experiences. What I find interesting is how ordinary the activities were. Learning to use a camera well gave people a real problem to solve and a reason to keep practicing (Park et al., 2014).

At McGill University, researchers at The Neuro looked at a different kind of learning. After ten weeks of computerized training, older adults showed changes in a brain signalling system involved in attention and memory. That finding came from a specific training program. It helps us understand how the brain can respond to practice, while the effects of returning to university are better examined in studies of people who actually went back to school (McGill University, 2025).

What does the research say about going back to university?

The Tasmanian Healthy Brain Project followed adults who attended university for at least a year and compared them with adults who did not. Over four years, the group that studied improved in language processing. The researchers did not detect comparable gains in working memory, episodic memory or executive function in that study. I appreciate that distinction. When we talk about the benefits of studying at an older age, it matters which skills improved and what the researchers actually measured (Thow et al., 2018).

One term that comes up in this research is cognitive reserve. Harvard Health Publishing describes it as the flexibility we draw on to solve problems and cope with challenges (What Is Cognitive Reserve?, 2025). Education is one of the experiences researchers consider when studying how that flexibility develops over a lifetime. We still have much to learn about the long term effects of particular learning activities. The McMaster Optimal Aging Portal (n.d.) notes that the evidence is still unclear about which kinds of cognitive training have lasting benefits and whether they help prevent dementia.

How studying changed my work

As a yoga and mindfulness educator, I spend a lot of time thinking about how to make a class accessible. Studying gerontology made me think more carefully about what happens before anyone gets to class. Can they find clear information? Is there a way to ask questions before signing up? Will the class give them room to use the skills they already have? Older adults have told me about programs that felt too basic for them and about the hesitation they felt joining classes open to the wider community. I think about those conversations when I plan a class.

Humber made me look more closely at how I teach mindfulness and gratitude. I pay more attention now to when a question gives someone room to reflect and when it asks more of them than they want to share. Sometimes the best thing I can do as an educator is ask a simpler question and give people time to decide whether they want to answer it.

Of course, there were readings I had to go through more than once and assignments I was relieved to submit. On the days I asked myself why I was still doing this, it helped to remember that the questions I brought to school came from work I cared about. I wanted to understand more about the people I was teaching and the communities I was working in. I still do.

Lifelong learning is part of how I want to age

When I think about aging well, I think about having a say in what I do with my time, staying connected to other people and having something I am genuinely interested in learning. University gave me a place to do that. A library workshop, a course you take at your own pace or a skill you practice with someone else can give you a place to begin. McMaster University (2024) points to libraries, colleges, universities and online programs as places to find learning opportunities in later life.

If you would like to learn with me, you can explore my live workshops for guided mindfulness and journalling, or visit Self Study to find online learning and workbooks you can work through at your own pace. I enjoy learning alongside other people, and I also know the pleasure of sitting down with a good question and having time to think about it. There is room for both.