Brain Mechanisms of Emotion-Cognition Interactions in Aging

描述(由申请者提供)：我们的注意力、记忆力和我们所做的决定都会受到当时的压力和我们的情感目标的影响。情绪和压力如何影响这些认知努力随着年龄的增长而变化，但这些年龄差异的潜在机制尚不清楚。这项职业发展奖的提案概述了两项研究，这两项研究结合了结构和功能磁共振成像(MRI)，以考察年龄如何影响协调情绪和认知的大脑机制。第一项研究测试了认知控制在老年人积极效应中的作用，方法是扫描年轻和年长的参与者，让他们在分心与否的情况下观看负面、积极或中性的图片。之前，我们已经发现，老年人在不分心的时候会忽略负面刺激，关注积极的刺激，但分心会消除这种积极效应。研究1测试了一种假设，即老年人利用基于前额叶的认知控制机制来调节杏仁核对情绪刺激的反应。研究2考察了压力如何对年轻人和老年人的决策产生不同的影响。先前的结果表明，严重的压力会降低老年人的冒险行为，但不会降低年轻人的风险。在这项研究中，将比较压力和控制条件下休息和高风险决策任务时的大脑活动。这两项研究都将研究慢性压力在调节大脑活动中的作用。在神经解剖学和分析结构和功能核磁共振数据方面的实质性培训将通过教程、研讨会和研究生级别的课程和研讨会进行。了解情绪-认知相互作用的大脑机制是PI的关键目标；这一职业发展奖将赋予她MRI和神经解剖学方面的专业知识，这些专业知识将帮助她开发和测试关于情绪、压力和认知机制的年龄差异理论。相关性(参见说明)：了解情绪和压力如何影响认知过程的大脑机制中的年龄差异，是理解人们如何在一生中保持精神敏锐和情绪健康的关键。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): Our attention, memory and the decisions we make are affected by the stresses of the moment and our emotional goals. How emotion and stress affect these cognitive efforts changes with age, yet the underlying mechanisms of these age differences are not clear. This proposal for a Career Development Award outlines two studies that combine structural and functional magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) to examine how age affects the brain mechanisms that coordinate emotion and cognition. The first study tests the role of cognitive control in older adults' positivity effect by scanning younger and older participants while they watch negative, positive, or neutral pictures either while distracted or not. Previously, we have found that older adults ignore negative stimuli and attend to positive stimuli when not distracted, but that distraction eliminates this positivity effect. Study 1 tests the hypothesis that older adults engage prefrontal-based cognitive control mechanisms to modulate the amygdala's response to emotional stimuli. Study 2 examines how stress affects decision making differently for younger and older adults. Previous results indicate that acute stress reduces risk taking in older adults but not younger adults. In this study, brain activity during rest and a risky decision task will be compared in a stress and a control condition. The role of chronic stress in modulating brain activity will be examined in both studies. Substantial training in neuroanatomy and analyzing structural and functional MRI data will occur via tutorials, workshops and graduate-level courses and seminars. Understanding the brain mechanisms of emotion-cognition interactions is a key goal of the PI; this Career Development Award will give her expertise in MRI and neuroanatomy that will help her develop and test theories about age differences in the mechanisms of emotion, stress and cognition. RELEVANCE (See instructions): Understanding age differences in the brain mechanisms of how emotion and stress affect cognitive processing is key to understanding how people can maintain mental sharpness and emotional well-being throughout life.