Neural Mechanisms of Affective Salience in Aging

描述（由申请人提供）：成功的衰老似乎部分与各种行为有关，这些行为需要处理动机、目标导向和个人相关（即，突出的）信息。在大多数情况下，目前的研究突出集中在认知因素，使注意力在外部环境中的相关信息。在我们的研究中，我们专注于与年龄相关的变化“情感突出”及其对社会功能的影响。在我们最初的资助中，我们研究了与年龄相关的变化，在处理新的和有效的情感刺激，重点是人类杏仁核[（R 01 AG 030311），衰老中社会决策的神经机制，2006年8月1日-2011年7月31日）]。我们发现，老年人的杏仁核对新奇感、效价和唤醒的反应不那么强烈，杏仁核和其他情感大脑结构之间的功能连接比年轻人减少。这些发现表明，世界上的信息是不那么情感突出的老年人。这是尽管事实上，似乎很少有 我们已经确定了潜在的情感显着性（除了正常的年龄相关的杏仁核体积减少）的网络中的解剖变化。在竞争性更新中，我们将从解剖学、功能和行为学方面扩展这些发现。使用高分辨率扫描，我们将以更复杂和精确的方式，在更大的样本中，研究情感显着性网络中大脑区域的结构完整性和内在连接性随年龄而保持（或改变）的程度（目标1）。在情感显著性网络中的备用解剖结构和内在连接的背景下，该网络中与任务相关的情感组装随着年龄的增长而变得不那么稳健，我们将研究与年龄相关的身体感官信息减少（以降低拦截灵敏度的形式）在多大程度上负责与任务相关的情感显著性减少（目标2）。也许世界上的物体和事件不那么突出，因为它们产生的身体扰动在衰老的大脑中没有被有效地检测和表示。此外，我们将研究这些情感显着性和拦截的减少在多大程度上是新的，中性材料（目标3）和社会参与（目标4）的记忆中的正常年龄相关变化的基础或贡献。最后，使用纵向设计，我们将确认任何与年龄相关的稳定性或情感显着性的下降可以从存在的实质性个体差异中解脱出来，并检查强烈的情感反应在多大程度上是一个保护因素，导致对新材料的更好记忆和/或随着年龄的增长保持社会参与（目标5）。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): Successful aging appears to relate in part to a variety of behaviors that require processing of motivated, goal- directed, and personally relevant (i.e., salient) information. For the most part, current research on salience has focused on the cognitive factors that allow attention to relevant information in the external environment. In our research, we focus on age-related changes in "affective salience" and their implications for social functioning. In our original grant, we examined age-related changes in the processing of novel and affectively potent stimuli, with a focus on the human amygdala [(R01 AG030311), Neural Mechanisms of Social Decision Making in Aging, August 1, 2006 - July 31, 2011)]. We found that amygdala responses to novelty, valence, and arousal are less robust and the functional connectivity between the amygdala and other affective brain structures is reduced in older individuals than in younger people. These findings indicate that information in the world is less affectively salient to older individuals. This is despite the fact that there appear to be few anatomical changes in the network that we have identified underlying affective salience (other than normal age-related reductions in amygdala volume). In the competing renewal, we will expand on these findings anatomically, functionally, and behaviorally. Using high resolution scanning, we will examine with more sophistication and precision, and in a larger sample, the extent to which both the structural integrity and intrinsic connectivity of brain regions within th affective salience network are maintained (or change) with age (Aim 1). In the context of spared anatomy and intrinsic connectivity within the affective salience network, task- related affective assemblies within this network are less robust with age, and we will examine the extent to which age-related reductions in sensory information from the body (in the form of reduced interceptive sensitivity) are responsible for task-related reductions in affective salience (Aim 2). Perhaps objects and events in the world are less salient because the bodily perturbations they produce are not detected and represented as efficiently in the aging brain. Furthermore, we will examine the extent to which these reductions in affective salience and interception underlie or contribute to normal age-related changes in memory for novel, neutral material (Aim 3) and in social engagement (Aim 4). Finally, using a longitudinal design, we will confirm that any age-related stability or decrements in affective salience can be disentangled from the substantial individual differences that exist, and also examine the extent to which strong affective reactivity is a protective factor, resulting in better memory for novel material and/or maintained social engagement as people age (Aim 5).