Dr Robin Saltonstall – Wizening Up: An Ecopsychological Perspective on the Neurobiology of Ageing and Oldering

This session considers from an ecopsychological perspective some of the recent research on the biological and neurobiological underpinnings of ageing and growing older (oldering).

Much of the scientific research on ageing has concerned itself with describing the particulars of physical and cognitive decline. More recently, research has revealed that the older brain becomes more neurally integrated and networked, ambidextrous, and able to get the “gist” of things. Other research has found that brains have a “reserve” that they begin to tap into once they reach a certain age. When we consider these findings from an ecopsychological perspective, one that concerns itself with inter- and intra-connecting relationships and on-going living processes, a new understanding of our ageing and oldering emerges; one that asks us to consider whether this becoming wrinkled and differently abled as we age and older is much more than a straightforward creeping into decrepitude but is perhaps a wizening up.

Some questions:

What might be the relationship between our increased ability to “gist” as we age (as a result of our increased and more integrated neural connections) and our increased physical incompetence (diminished eyesight, hearing, agility, etc)? To what purpose?

As homo sapien mammals we are in the thick of the lived biological processes of decomposing and recomposing. Decomposition and recomposition are an entangled pair with fuzzy borders in both ecological/biological systems and our lived experience of ageing and oldering. How do we begin to consider our own decomposing as a recomposing?

Robin Rose Saltonstall holds a PhD from the University of California San Francisco Medical School. She is an integrative health practitioner in Boulder, Colorado, USA, who focuses on the unique physical challenges and psychological developmental tasks facing individuals in the second half of life. She is an ecopsychologist, a Polyvagal-Informed therapist, and a professor of Climate Crisis and Ecopsychological Applications as well as Ecotoxicology for Viridis Graduate Institute (www.viridis.edu). Robin integrates neuroscience, Nature-based learning, depth psychology, art, and movement for living well in the second half of life.