Neural Mechanisms of Social Decision Making in Aging

描述（由申请人提供）：美国目前拥有历史上最多的老年人，预计这一数字将在未来20年内迅速增加。老年人口的迅速增加突出表明，需要更好地了解伴随老龄化的变化，这些变化可能有助于晚年的心理健康和福祉。衰老的一个重要且相对未被探索的方面与社会和情感领域决策过程中发生的变化有关。在一生中做出正确的社会和情感决定是幸福的重要因素。一个描述社会和情感随着年龄增长而繁荣的模型是社会情感选择理论。根据社会情绪选择性理论，在成年人的一生中，人们越来越关注积极情绪，因此老年人选择性地选择积极情绪体验可能性高的社交互动。在这种情况下，社会联系仅限于好朋友和家人，当社会联系的数量减少时，可以获得更大的满足感和幸福感。支持这种增强的社会情绪决策的潜在神经机制受到的关注相对较少，但它们很重要，因为它们可以防止社会孤立和精神疾病。当前提案的具体目的是研究大脑如何与社会情感决策的两个明确定义的方面相关-初级评价和关于社会对象的情感学习（即，人，随着年龄的增长而改变。我们将重点关注参与这些决策过程的两个特定的大脑区域，腹内侧前额叶皮层和杏仁核。我们计划收集和分析结构和功能磁共振成像数据以及社会网络特征和幸福感的自我报告措施。最重要的假设是，在社会情绪决策过程中，腹内侧前额叶皮层-杏仁核回路的年龄相关差异与社会情绪选择性和衰老中的幸福感密切相关。目的1：探讨社会情绪决策过程中，前额叶腹内侧皮层和杏仁核结构-功能关系的年龄变化。目的2将探讨腹内侧前额叶皮层-杏仁核回路如何与社会网络特征和整个生命周期的幸福感相关。这些研究的结果将阐明健康的社会情绪决策和老年人福祉的神经基础。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): The United States currently has the largest number of older adults at any time in its history, and this number is expected to rapidly increase over the next 20 years. This rapid increase in the aged population highlights the need to better understand changes that accompany aging and which may contribute to mental health and well-being in later life. One important and relatively unexplored aspect of aging relates to the changes that occur with decision making in the social and emotional realms. Making the correct social and emotional decisions during the lifespan is an essential contributor to well-being. One model that describes social and emotional flourishing with aging is Socioemotional Selectivity theory. According to Socioemotional Selectivity theory, there is an increasing focus on positive emotion over the adult lifespan such that older individuals selectively choose social interactions where the likelihood of positive emotional experience is high. In this setting, social contacts are limited to good friends and family, and greater satisfaction and well-being is achieved while the number of social contacts decreases. The underlying neural mechanisms that support this enhanced Socioemotional decision-making have received relatively little attention, but are important as they may protect from social isolation and mental illness. The specific purpose of the current proposal is to examine how the brain correlates of two well defined aspects of Socioemotional decision making - primary appraisal and affective learning about social objects (i.e., people) - are altered with aging. We will focus on two specific brain areas involved in these decision-making processes, the ventromedial prefrontal cortex and the amygdala. We plan to collect and analyze structural and functional magnetic resonance imaging data and self-report measures of social network characteristics and well-being. The overarching hypothesis is that age-related differences in ventromedial prefrontal cortex-amygdala circuitry during Socioemotional decision- making are closely related to Socioemotional selectivity and well-being in aging. Aim 1 will investigate age-related changes in the structure-function relationships between the ventromedial prefrontal cortex and amygdala during different aspects of Socioemotional decision making. Aim 2 will investigate how the ventromedial prefrontal cortex-amygdala circuitry relates to social network characteristics and well-being across the lifespan. The results of these studies will elucidate the neural bases of healthy Socioemotional decision-making and well-being in aging.