Is There an Arc of Firsts Across a Lifetime?

Longevity is not just adding years to life, but firsts to years.

Perhaps it was the contrast that made the question unavoidable.

I had spent a week in Tokyo immersed in research on aging, and then leaving Tokyo on the Shinkansen, whizzing past Japan's largest mountain, Mt Fuji, where, I hoped to snatch a photo, but just at the moment when Japan`s iconic peak came into view, my phone pinged with a photo of my six-month-old grandson tasting corn for the first time.

The pic my son sent was the latest in a growing series of FIRSTS for my grandson. first tastes, first textures, first encounters with objects, even first attempts at holding himself in new ways.

Still experiencing the lingering effects of hanging out with gerontologists, psychologists, educators, and clinicians at a global conference on aging and gerontology in Tokyo, the picture prompted a question: Is there data that could illustrate an “arc of firsts” across a lifetime?

So I dove down a data rabbit hole. Starting with the sources I already had for my book, then following the Google trail to new research.

So far, I have not found a neat dataset that maps the rise and fall of first-time experiences from infancy to old age. But research across neuroscience, psychology, and aging clearly reveals a consistent thread: the issue is not that firsts disappear. It is that, over time, many people stop seeking them.

We don’t run out of new experiences. We run out of the habit of noticing them.

In early life, novelty and discovery are not optional; it is biological. The infant brain undergoes rapid synaptogenesis, the formation of neural connections at an extraordinary rate. New stimuli such as taste, texture, sound, and movement trigger dopamine release, reinforcing learning and exploration. Edward Deci and Richard Ryan’s work on intrinsic motivation clearly describes this: humans are wired, from the outset, to engage with novelty for its own sake.

This drive does not disappear in adolescence. In fact, research suggests it intensifies. Studies by Adriana Galván and others show heightened sensitivity in the brain’s reward systems during teenage and early adult years. This is the season of first jobs, first relationships, and first real risks. The world is expanding, and we are still inclined to meet it head-on.

Early in life, curiosity pulls us forward. Later in life, we must choose it.

Then, gradually and almost without noticing, something shifts.

We begin to optimize for efficiency, predictability, and control. Charles Duhigg’s work on habit formation explains how routines take hold, reducing the cognitive load of daily life. Neuroscience offers a parallel explanation through predictive processing—the brain’s tendency to rely on past patterns rather than continually engaging with the new.

None of this is inherently negative. It is, in many ways, necessary. But there is a consequence. We do not run out of firsts. We begin to filter them out.

Routine is useful, but it can also impede learning and prevent discovery.

This is where the research becomes particularly relevant to aging, and where it intersects directly with my own work across Japan’s longevity hotspots. The evidence is clear that neuroplasticity does not simply switch off with age. Denise Park and Gabriele Bischof (2013) demonstrate that the aging brain retains a significant capacity for adaptation, particularly when engaged in novel and cognitively demanding activities. The Synapse Project, led by Park at the University of Texas, found that older adults who learned new, complex skills such as digital photography or quilting showed measurable improvements in memory compared to those engaged in more passive activities.

It is a pattern I have witnessed firsthand in my visits to longevity pockets in rural Japan, where, time and again, I meet healthy, active super-agers in their 80s and 90s who are taking up new hobbies and interests. The pattern that emerges is both simple and profound. Novelty, particularly when combined with challenge, supports cognitive health, resilience, and a continued sense of purpose.

The brain does not retire. It responds to how we use it.

This is not just theory. It is something I have seen repeatedly in Japan, and something reinforced in conversation at the conference where I had the privilege of sharing a panel with Professor Yukiko Sawano of Sacred Heart University, a recognized expert in lifelong learning, along with best-selling author Héctor García, co-author of Ikigai. The session was moderated by educational psychologist Dexter Da Silva, Professor Emeritus at Keisen University in Tokyo. Organized by the International Academic Forum, the conference drew 865 delegates from 68 countries. The panel was on the first day of the final Plenary Session.

Our discussion centered on community, happiness, and aging, but what stood out to me was how naturally the idea of lifelong learning surfaced in that context. Sawano spoke about continued engagement not as a formal academic pursuit, but as a way of living, learning through participation, relationships, and openness to new experiences.

García’s work on ikigai complements this. While often translated as “purpose,” it is just as much about staying active, curious, and engaged over time. It is not fixed, but evolves as we continue to explore and experience new things.

This aligns closely with what I have observed in Okinawa, Nagano, and Shimane, places often associated with longevity. You do not find people trying to reclaim youth. What you find instead is persistent and often tenacious engagement with life. People in their seventies and eighties join festivals, take up new hobbies, sing karaoke, and remain deeply connected to those around them. They are not chasing novelty for its own sake, but neither are they closed to it. They continue to accumulate firsts in small but meaningful ways.

In my research for an upcoming book, Longevity and the Art of Community: Lessons from Japan, one of the recurring traits I have observed of what we might call “super-agers” is not simply discipline or even diet, though both have their place. It is sustained curiosity, practical and expressed through daily life. One of my advisors in my research, Dr. James McNally, underscored the timeliness of the research as he said we could be seeing the last cohort of “super-agers” as those who have remained mentally and socially engaged throughout their lives, rather than withdrawing from it.

They do not age out of life. They stay in it.

So while I cannot find a definitive arc of firsts mapped across a lifetime, the broader pattern is clear. Firsts are abundant in early life, they peak in youth, and they tend to decline not because they disappear, but because we gradually stop reaching for them. And yet, the research and lived experience both suggest that they remain available to us at any age, waiting less on circumstance than on intent.

Which brings me back, in a way, to that moment on the train, where a picture of my tiny grandson eclipsed my view of Japan’s highest mountain.

My grandson was simply tasting corn. He was not thinking about neural pathways, longevity, or cognitive resilience. He was encountering something new and responding to it in real time. Perhaps that is the point of living a full and healthy life to the end. Not to become childlike, but to remain open. Because longevity is not just about adding years to life, but about adding firsts to those years.

I am more aware than ever of how easily life can narrow if left unattended. The question is no longer how many firsts remain, but whether I am still willing to notice them, choose them, and act on them.

A long life is not measured only in years, but in how many times we allow something to be new again.

Sources & Further Reading

• Deci, Edward L., and Richard M. Ryan. Intrinsic Motivation and Self-Determination in Human Behavior. New York: Plenum Press, 1985.

• Galván, Adriana. “Adolescent Development of the Reward System.” Frontiers in Human Neuroscience 4 (2010): 6. https://doi.org/10.3389/neuro.09.006.2010

• Duhigg, Charles. The Power of Habit: Why We Do What We Do in Life and Business. New York: Random House, 2012.

• Clark, Andy. Surfing Uncertainty: Prediction, Action, and the Embodied Mind. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2016.

• Park, Denise C., and Gabriele N. Bischof. “The Aging Mind: Neuroplasticity in Response to Cognitive Training.” Current Directions in Psychological Science 22, no. 3 (2013): 198–203.

• Park, Denise C., et al. “The Impact of Sustained Engagement on Cognitive Function in Older Adults: The Synapse Project.” Psychological Science 25, no. 1 (2014): 103–112.

• Héctor García, and Francesc Miralles. Ikigai: The Japanese Secret to a Long and Happy Life. London: Hutchinson, 2016.

• Yukiko Sawano. Panel contribution on lifelong learning and community engagement in aging, presented at the 12th Asian Conference on Aging & Gerontology (AGen2026), Tokyo, Japan, March 23–27, 2026.

• Dexter Da Silva. Panel moderator, session on community, happiness, and aging, 12th Asian Conference on Aging & Gerontology (AGen2026), Tokyo, Japan, March 23–27, 2026.

• International Academic Forum. The 12th Asian Conference on Aging & Gerontology (AGen2026), Tokyo International Forum & Toshi Center Hotel, Tokyo, Japan, March 23–27, 2026.

• James W. McNally. Research and commentary associated with the NACDA Program on Aging (National Archive of Computerized Data on Aging), with reference to late-life cohorts maintaining high levels of cognitive and social engagement.

About Lowell Sheppard

Lowell Sheppard is a Fellow of the Royal Geographical Society, founder of the Never Too Late Academy, Special Advisor to the International Academic Forum, and author of ten books.

At 71, he travels across Japan researching longevity and healthy aging, following data trails to the country’s leading longevity hotspots. His work has been deeply immersive, including a year living in Okinawa and the past 15 months tracing Japan’s longevity corridors, and forms the basis of his forthcoming book, Longevity and the Art of Community: Lessons from Japan, due for publication next year.

Lowell also advises companies on understanding the behaviors and needs of “super-agers,” drawing on a career in sustainable community development across Japan, Cambodia, the Philippines, and Ethiopia

He is also the creator of the Pacific Solo project, now evolving into Japan Solo, a YouTube channel documenting slow travel across Japan, by sea and land, exploring culture, community, and the realities of living well later in life.