Emotional Memory in Aging: Cognitive & Neural Processes

描述（由申请人提供）：日常生活的材料和记忆往往注入了情感相关性，这是不存在的，甚至可能是避免的，在传统的记忆老化的研究。到目前为止，很少有研究调查了老年人情绪记忆的认知和神经基础，也没有一项研究在任何参与者群体中进行情绪记忆的单一研究，包括行为，大脑结构和大脑生理学。为了填补这一空白，我们将采取双管齐下的方法：一系列行为实验，将显示情绪效价在多大程度上有利于老年人记住的信息的数量和质量;以及使用先进技术的相关结构和功能磁共振成像实验。这些研究将使我们能够揭示年轻人情绪记忆的神经结构，以及老年人改变和保留情绪记忆回路的神经结构。在年轻人中，与中性刺激相比，情绪刺激的记忆通常更好。来自我们实验室和其他实验室的证据表明，老年人也表现出基于情绪效价的增强。然而，目前还不清楚正常的衰老是否会影响支持情绪增强的特定组成部分的认知或神经机制：记住负面事件丰富细节的能力增加。这个问题特别有趣，因为老年人很难回忆起非情感事件的具体细节（与记住事件的要点相比）。中性项目的回忆记忆被认为依赖于海马结构，我们预测，情绪刺激的回忆增强来自杏仁核，其他内侧颞叶结构和前额叶皮质之间的联系。与老年人的能力，以显示增强的基础上唤醒或效价的项目，我们发现，老年人不显示增强中性刺激嵌入在一个消极的与中性的背景。拟议研究的第二个目标是检查这种缺陷是否存在于一系列刺激中，以及这种损伤是否与特定大脑区域的功能障碍有关。由于前额叶皮层在将一个项目与其背景或来源记忆联系起来方面的特殊作用，我们认为老年人的增强能力下降可能是由于前额叶皮层的结构或功能改变。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): The material and memories of everyday life are often infused with an emotional relevance that is not present, and may even be avoided, in traditional studies of memory in aging. To date, few studies have investigated the cognitive and neural substrates of emotional memory in older adults, and none has investigated behavior, brain structure, and brain physiology in a single study of emotional memory in any participant group. To fill this gap, we will adopt a two-pronged approach: a series of behavioral experiments that will show the extent to which emotional valence conveys a benefit on the quantity and, significantly, the quality of information remembered by older adults; and related structural and functional magnetic resonance imaging experiments using advanced technology. These investigations will allow us to uncover the neural structures that underlie emotional memory in younger adults, and altered and preserved emotional memory circuits in older adults. In young adults, memory is typically better for emotional as compared to neutral stimuli. Evidence from our laboratory and others suggests that older adults also show enhancement based on emotional valence. It is unclear, however, whether normal aging affects the cognitive or neural mechanisms supporting a specific component of emotional enhancement: the increased ability to remember rich details of a negative event. This question is of particular interest because older adults have difficulty recalling specific details of non-emotional events (as compared to remembering the gist of the events). Recollective memory for neutral items is thought to rely on the hippocampal formation, and we predict that the recollective enhancement for emotional stimuli results from connections between the amygdala, other medial temporal lobe structures, and prefrontal cortex. In contrast to older adults' ability to show enhancement based on the arousal or valence of an item, we found that older adults do not show enhancement for neutral stimuli embedded in a negative versus a neutral context. A second goal of the proposed research is to examine whether this deficit is present across a range of stimuli, and whether the impairment is related to dysfunction of specific brain regions. Because of the particular role of prefrontal cortex in binding an item to its context, or source memory, we propose that older adults' reduced enhancement may be due to structural or functional alterations in prefrontal cortex.