Degraded Rationality: Subclinical Neuropathology and Neuroeconomic Behavior in Ol

描述(由申请人提供)：神经经济学的新兴领域，代表经济学、心理学和神经科学之间的接口，提供了理解人类各种社会行为背后的神经机制的机会。这项拟议的研究是根据RFA-AG-06-011老龄化神经经济学(R21)提交的，将把包括时间折扣、风险承受能力、信任和金融知识在内的经济行为纳入正在进行的关于老龄化的纵向流行病学临床-病理学研究，即快速记忆和老龄化项目。我们将检验这一假设，即阿尔茨海默病的病理可以解释非痴呆症老年人在经济行为上的个体差异。提供的初步数据表明，大多数没有痴呆症的老年人在为经济行为服务的神经系统中积累了阿尔茨海默病的病理(神经原纤维缠结和淀粉样蛋白)。这些区域包括支持分析性决策的区域，包括背外侧前额叶皮质、后顶叶皮质和前扣带皮质，以及支持情感决策的区域，包括伏隔核、眼眶额叶皮质、杏仁核、前尾状核和前岛叶皮质。我们引入退化理性这个术语来指大脑中的病理变化对这两种经济行为的后果。研究结果对对老年人的经济决策进行经济建模具有重要意义。 这项拟议的研究提供了确定非临床痴呆症老年人经济行为个体差异的病理基础的可能性。随着美国人口老龄化，需要更好地理解老年经济决策，因为它适用于储蓄行为、代际转移、退休计划、高级指令和保险决策。拟议研究的结果可为一系列研究奠定基础，这些研究涉及非痴呆症老年人经济决策的上述和其他方面。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): The burgeoning field of neuroeconomics, representing the interface between economics, psychology, and neuroscience, offers the opportunity to understand the neural mechanisms underlying a wide variety of human social behaviors. The proposed study, submitted in response to RFA-AG-06-011 Neuroeconomics of Aging (R21), will incorporate economic behaviors, including temporal discounting, risk tolerance, trust, and financial literacy into an ongoing longitudinal epidemiologic clinical-pathologic study of aging, the Rush Memory and Aging Project. We will test the hypothesis that Alzheimer's disease pathology accounts for individual differences in economic behaviors in older persons without dementia. Preliminary data is provided demonstrating that the majority of older persons without dementia accumulate Alzheimer's disease pathology (neurofibrillary tangles and amyloid) in neural systems that sub serve economic behaviors. These include regions that support analytic decision making including the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex, posterior parietal cortex, and anterior cingulate cortex, and regions that support affective decision making including nucleus accumbens, orbital frontal cortex, amygdala, anterior caudate nucleus, and anterior insular cortex. We introduce the term degraded rationality to refer to the consequences of pathological changes in the brain on both economic behaviors. The results have important implications for economic modeling of the economic decisions of older persons. The proposed study offers the possibility of identifying the pathologic basis individual differences in economic behaviors in older persons without clinical dementia. As the U.S. population ages, a greater understanding of economic decision making in old age as it applies to savings behavior, inter-generational transfers, retirement planning, advanced directives, and insurance decisions are needed. The results of the proposed study could lay the foundation for a series of studies that address these and other aspects of economic decision making in older persons without dementia.