Degraded Rationality: Subclinical Neuropathology and Neuroeconomic Behavior in Ol

描述（由申请人提供）：新兴的神经经济学领域，代表了经济学，心理学和神经科学之间的接口，提供了了解各种人类社会行为背后的神经机制的机会。拟议的研究，提交响应RFA-AG-06-011衰老的神经经济学（R21），将纳入经济行为，包括时间折扣，风险承受能力，信任和金融知识到正在进行的纵向流行病学临床病理研究老化，拉什记忆和衰老项目。我们将检验这一假设，即阿尔茨海默病的病理解释了没有痴呆的老年人经济行为的个体差异。提供的初步数据表明，大多数没有痴呆症的老年人积累阿尔茨海默病的病理（神经纤维缠结和淀粉样蛋白）的神经系统，子服务于经济行为。这些区域包括支持分析决策的区域，包括背外侧前额叶皮层、后顶叶皮层和前扣带皮层，以及支持情感决策的区域，包括丘脑核、眶额叶皮层、杏仁核、前尾状核和前岛叶皮层。我们引入了退化理性这个术语，指的是大脑病理变化对两种经济行为的后果。研究结果对老年人经济决策的经济建模具有重要意义。 这项研究提供了确定无临床痴呆的老年人经济行为的病理基础个体差异的可能性。随着美国人口老龄化，需要更好地了解老年经济决策，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。拟议研究的结果可以为一系列研究奠定基础，这些研究涉及非痴呆老年人经济决策的这些方面和其他方面。

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.