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Older adults show greater resilience than youth during pandemic, defying expectations

Huberman Lab · How to Improve Your Memory & Cognitive Function at Any Age | Dr. Alan Castel · July 13, 2026
Older adults show greater resilience than youth during pandemic, defying expectations
Huberman Lab
Huberman Lab
How to Improve Your Memory & Cognitive Function at Any Age | Dr. Alan Castel
"We at first thought CO is going to be terrible for older people, right? Because they're going to be socially isolated. They don't know how to use technology. But what we found, at least at the psychological level, we did some of this research, older adults were much more resilient than younger adults. The older adults were the ones who are like, Eh, I've lived through X, Y, and Z, wars, financial meltdowns, you know, changes in family structure, deaths of close people."
Research during COVID-19 revealed that older adults demonstrated superior psychological resilience compared to younger cohorts despite predictions of vulnerability. Their lifetime experience with adversity, loss, and disruption provided a cognitive and emotional buffer that younger people lacked during their first major collective crisis.
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Huberman Lab
Huberman Lab

How to Improve Your Memory & Cognitive Function at Any Age | Dr. Alan Castel

August 3, 2026 · 2h 28m · 8 Egleze moments
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