A TRANSLATIONAL MODEL OF HEALTHY SOCIOEMOTIONAL AGING

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Project Summary By 2060, there will be at least 98 million older adults (65 years of age or older) living in the United States (Colby & Ortman, 2014), underscoring the urgency to understand the biological processes that drive healthy, “successful” aging. While aging is accompanied by a host of negative changes (e.g., deterioration of memory), paradoxically, existing data demonstrate that social and emotional life actually get better with age. Older adults report more positive social experiences, more positive and/or less negative emotional experiences, and have biased attention towards positive and away from negative stimuli (e.g., Birditt et al., 2005; 2009; Luong et al., 2011; Gross et al., 1997; Carstensen et al., 2011; Isaacowitz et al., 2006a,b; Isaacowitz et al., 2008; Isaacowitz, 2012; Mather & Carstensen, 2003). This phenomenon is known as the “positivity effect” (Mather & Carstensen, 2005; Carstensen & Mikels, 2005). The goal of the proposed research is to take the first step in understanding the biological mechanisms that generate this “positivity effect” by establishing an animal model of healthy human socioemotional aging with the understanding that we must understand health to treat those who are not healthy. To that end, a suite of tests homologous to those used with humans will be used to evaluate socioemotional processes in rhesus macaques, and the translational relevance of those tests will be determined on a task-by-task basis. The proposed work will evaluate the social behavior of the animals, visual attention to positive and negative stimuli, and features of emotional responding associated with activity in the autonomic nervous system. The goal of the proposed research – to establish rhesus monkeys as a model for healthy socioemotional aging in humans – serves the long-term goal of understanding the biological mechanisms that support healthy socioemotional aging, which in turn will enable development of effective treatments and interventions to promote health and well-being in our aging population.