Playfulness and Aging: The Neurobiology of Joy

Photo by Jacqueline Munguía on Unsplash

What happens when we stop taking aging literally, and reframe it playfully? Science poses a new theoretical framework: play may be the route to improved cognitive health in aging. What if one of the most powerful ways to stay cognitively alive (not just sharp, but awake), is something we are trained to outgrow? Through social play, unscripted interaction, mutual surprise and the willingness to accept the uncontrollable, we may unlock the ability to remain flexible, alert and capable in later phases of life.

From childhood onward, play is seen as developmental. Somewhere in adulthood, society consigns play to the trivial and indulgent. People refer to work and productivity as if they are the only engines of growth, but what if play is the core engine of adaptive cognition itself? Playful interactions aren’t predictable or governed by scripts, each moment contains uncertainty, which is an uncomfortable prospect for those with many years of practice in control, but is happily welcomed by those open to the experience. Neurologically, the uncertainty matters.

Recent research argues that social playfulness unlocks a network deep in the brain, the one responsible for arousal, attention and flexibility. Crucially, this is the system that tends to decline as we age, so perhaps by embracing uncertainty collectively, the circuitry that supports resilient and adaptive cognition can continue to be stimulated.

Uncertainty is something people inherently avoid; proactivity and frameworks and mitigating circumstances. At the neural level, uncertainty is where cognition grows the strongest; play doesn’t ignore uncertainty, it inhabits it. This is applicable to all life stages, not just those in later life. This neurological system plays a key role in attention, flexibility and executive functions – the same functions demanded of leaders. Play is not a soft skill in this framework, it’s a neurological lever.

In older age, cognitive health models appear as mental puzzles, memory games and structured cognitive training, but this research suggests that it should derive from spontaneous, unpredictable and reciprocal interaction between two people; a rehearsal for uncertainty, practicing not knowing and being present. One of the most important points raised in this research is that social playfulness co-opts the brains arousal systems from stress into positive engagement and exploration. In a psychologically safe social environment, unpredictability becomes curiosity rather than a threat. Too much uncertainty without support feels like anxiety, but supported uncertainty reshapes that into novelty and, socially, connection.

The implications go beyond cognitive decline. Playfulness enhances positive mood, social connectedness and motivation for new experiences, but is still only considered optional in most societies, something that now feels like a cultural mistake.

Neuroscience validates the core fundamentals of successful leadership; presence, relationship and uncertainty. The systems that cultivate presence, the tolerance for uncertainty, reciprocity and co-creation, are the ones that also strengthen cognition.

This research sheds light on the need for a shift; treating play as an essential element of cognitive nutrition, reducing the stigma to build better systems, both in professional life and life stages beyond our careers.  It is important, not just for how we age, but how we lead, relate and live. Play does not need to feel irresponsible or dangerous, the more it is practiced, the more well versed people may be in the toleration of ambiguity, without fear of looking foolish. If it’s wired in our neural circuitry, it must have benefit beyond what society deems appropriate; what is being sacrificed in the absence of play?

In depth psychology, from the perspective of shadow work, the disappearance of play in adulthood is not an accident, it is strategic. Play exposes what leaders and responsible adults are trained and conditioned to hide: uncertainty, dependency, and emotional risk. These qualities transcend into the shadow and get replaced by competence, certainty and control, but what is exiled does not disappear, it hardens. Over time, leadership identities become rigid, overmanaged and brittle. They look impressive on the surface, but are exhausted beneath it. Play, in this light, is not a break from leadership, but a confrontation with it’s shadow. Playfulness is an invitation to leaders to explore the unscripted relationships where power is shared, mistakes are not masked and outcomes are allowed to be unknown. Psychological authority is forged, not through mastery, but through capacity to be present when control dissolves.

In later life, the return to social play takes on a different psychological weight, aging acts as reorientation; a movement away from external achievement and towards meaning. Social play in older age is not a nostalgia for youth but a reactivation of the psyche’s symbolic capacity, loosening the grip of the persona curated in younger adulthood and allowing the shadowed, neglected and unlived parts of the self to re-emerge. Play becomes the catalyst for individuation; where people can meet one another beyond roles and ‘usefulness’. Neuroscience may deem this as cognitive resilience, but depth psychology would call it the refusal to let the shadow remain unacknowledged.

For the research article mentioned, published in the Frontiers in Human Neuroscience, Volume 19, 2025, find the link here:

Frontiers | Playful brains: a possible neurobiological pathway to cognitive health in aging

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