Brain Mechanisms of Emotion-Cognition Interactions in Aging

描述（由申请人提供）：我们的注意力、记忆力和我们所做的决定都会受到当下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变化而变化，但这些年龄差异的潜在机制尚不清楚。这份职业发展奖的提案概述了两项结合结构和功能磁共振成像（MRI）的研究，以研究年龄如何影响协调情感和认知的大脑机制。第一项研究测试了认知控制在老年人积极效应中的作用，通过扫描年轻和年长的参与者，让他们在分心或不分心的情况下观看消极、积极或中性的图片。以前，我们发现老年人在不分心的情况下会忽略负面刺激，而关注积极刺激，但分心会消除这种积极影响。研究1验证了老年人参与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的假设。研究2考察了压力对年轻人和老年人的决策影响有何不同。先前的研究结果表明，急性压力降低了老年人的冒险行为，但对年轻人没有影响。在这项研究中，大脑活动在休息和风险决策任务将比较在压力和控制条件下。慢性应激在调节大脑活动中的作用将在这两项研究中进行检验。在神经解剖学和分析结构和功能MRI数据的实质性培训将通过教程，讲习班和研究生水平的课程和研讨会进行。了解情绪-认知相互作用的脑机制是PI的一个关键目标；该职业发展奖将授予她在核磁共振成像和神经解剖学方面的专业知识，这将帮助她发展和测试有关情绪、压力和认知机制中年龄差异的理论。相关性（见说明）：了解情绪和压力如何影响认知加工的大脑机制的年龄差异，是了解人们如何在一生中保持思维敏捷和情绪健康的关键。

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.