Age and sex effects on neural mechanisms underlying arousal and cognition

年龄和性别对唤醒和认知神经机制的影响

• 批准号: 8836063
• 负责人: Shawn Elizabeth Nielsen
• 金额: $ 5.15万
• 依托单位: UNIVERSITY OF SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 财政年份: 2014
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2014-12-01 至 2017-11-30
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/8836063
• 关键词: Address; Affect; Affective; Age; Aging; Amygdaloid structure; Anterior; Arousal; Behavior; Bilateral; Brain; Brain Stem; Caliber; Cognition; Cognitive; Dorsal; Elderly; Event; Exhibits; Eye; Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging; Gonadal Steroid Hormones; Hippocampus (Brain); Image; Impairment; Individual Differences; Insula of Reil; International; Isometric Exercise; Luteal Phase; Magnetic Resonance Imaging; Measures; Mediating; Memory; Mydriasis; Norepinephrine; Participant; Pattern; Perception; Performance; Photic Stimulation; Physiological; Play; Postmenopause; Process; Pupil; Randomized; Reaction; Reaction Time; Relative (related person); Research; Salivary; Scanning; Source; Stimulus; Structure; System; Techniques; Testing; Woman; age difference; age related; aged; alpha-amylase; cognitive function; cost; hormonal contraception; indexing; information processing; locus ceruleus structure; long term memory; memory process; mental representation; neural circuit; neurobiological mechanism; neuromechanism; neuromelanin; neurophysiology; noradrenergic; norepinephrine system; older women; proliferative phase Menstrual cycle; public health relevance; relating to nervous system; research study; response; reuptake; sample fixation; sex; sound; theories; young woman

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): It is well-documented that stressful and arousing events activate the locus-coeruleus-norepinephrine (LC-NE) system, which is a primary source of central norepinephrine. The LC-NE system and other factors such as aging and sex hormone levels have been implicated in modulating cognitive behaviors. However, there is limited research on how age and sex hormones affect the LC-NE system and arousal-mediated cognition. One cognitive process that is likely modulated by the LC-NE system is arousal-biased competition (ABC). ABC theory postulates that arousal modulates the strength of competing mental representations and enhances the perception of high priority information while decreasing the perception of low priority information; subsequently, ABC processes strengthen memory consolidation for these high priority stimuli. There is still much to be investigated with ABC theory, especially with respect to long-term memory processes. Therefore, this proposal will test how age and sex hormone levels modulate neural activity underlying physiological arousal and arousal-cognition interactions in an arousal-biased competition (ABC) paradigm. The experiments proposed here will test the hypothesis that neural activity underlying noradrenergic (NE) responding to handgrip are modulated by age and sex hormone levels (Aim 1). We will then test the hypotheses that the neural circuitry identified in Aim 1 are activated under other conditions of arousal (Aim 2a), that age and sex hormone levels affect the degree to which arousal modulates the encoding and long-term memory of salient and non-salient images (Aim 2b), and that these selective enhancement and impairment effects are driven by interactions between the neural circuitry identified in Aim 1, the broader salience network, and the hippocampus (Aim 2c). This proposal will be the first to test the relationship between physiological indices of arousal (pupil dilation, sAA), activity in the salience network (dorsal anterior cingulate, bilateral anterior insula, brainstem, amygdala) and locus coeruleus, and short and long-term memory for salient stimuli. This study will also reveal potential influences of sex hormones and age on the neurophysiological processes which underlie arousal-biased competition. Results from this study will provide important information about how arousal influences information processing and memory consolidation for women throughout early and late life.

描述(由申请人提供)：众所周知，应激和唤醒事件激活了中枢去甲肾上腺素的主要来源-蓝斑-去甲肾上腺素(LC-NE)系统。LC-NE系统以及其他因素，如衰老和性激素水平，都与调节认知行为有关。然而，关于年龄和性激素如何影响LC-NE系统和唤醒中介认知的研究有限。一种可能受LC-NE系统调节的认知过程是唤醒偏向竞争(ABC)。ABC理论认为，唤醒调节了竞争性心理表征的强度，增强了对高优先级信息的感知，同时减少了对低优先级信息的感知；随后，ABC过程加强了对这些高优先级刺激的记忆巩固。ABC理论还有许多需要研究的地方，特别是关于长时记忆过程的研究。因此，这项提议将测试年龄和性激素水平如何在唤醒-偏向竞争(ABC)范式中调节生理唤醒和唤醒-认知交互作用下的神经活动。这里提出的实验将检验这样一个假设，即对握手做出反应的去甲肾上腺素(NE)潜在的神经活动受到年龄和性激素水平的调节(目标1)。然后，我们将测试这些假设，即目标1中确定的神经回路在其他唤醒条件下被激活(目标2a)，年龄和性激素水平影响觉醒调节显著和非显著图像的编码和长期记忆的程度(目标2b)，以及这些选择性增强和损害效应是由目标1中确定的神经回路、更广泛的突出网络和海马体(目标2c)之间的相互作用驱动的。这项建议将首次测试唤醒(瞳孔扩大，SAA)、突起网络(背侧前扣带回、双侧前岛、脑干、杏仁核)和蓝斑的生理指标与对突显刺激的短期和长期记忆之间的关系。这项研究还将揭示性激素和年龄对神经生理过程的潜在影响，这些过程是唤醒偏见竞争的基础。这项研究的结果将提供有关唤醒如何影响女性在生命早期和晚期的信息处理和记忆巩固的重要信息。