Social Reward Processing Across the Lifespan: Identifying Risk Factors for Financial Exploitation

项目摘要 老年人往往是金融剥削的受害者，每年造成至少30亿美元的损失。 剥削的威胁可能更大的风险，阿尔茨海默氏病和相关痴呆症（ADRD）。 虽然大多数金融剥削案件是由陌生人犯下的，但 受害者的社交网络（例如，朋友和家人）是常见的。虽然这些观察结果突出了社会 金融剥削的本质，我们对老年人和处于风险中的人的神经系统如何知道得很少。 对于ADRD，整合来自社交领域的信息，为财务决策提供信息。所涉及的任务 社会信息处理引起颞顶交界区（TPJ）和背内侧区的激活 前额叶皮层;而涉及财务决策和奖励处理的任务则会激活 纹状体和腹内侧前额叶皮质。目前尚不清楚这些神经元内的反应是否 系统-以及它们与其他地区之间的连通性-因年龄和金融风险而异 剥削我们最近证明了年龄差异TPJ反应在社会决策过程中， 金融交易的背景（例如，信任与公平）。我们还表明，社会背景的影响 (e.g.,相对于年轻人，老年人的纹状体对奖励的反应减弱 成年人了在这些令人兴奋的初步数据的基础上，当前提案的目标是描述神经系统的特征。 在整个成年期的社会决策和奖励处理过程中的反应，并量化这些反应是如何发生的。 答复涉及金融剥削的风险。我们将招募大量成年人样本（年龄21至80岁以上） 参与一项神经成像实验，研究社会奖励过程以及 社会背景和财务决策。我们还将管理神经心理学和健康 评估，以及评估社会情绪功能和财务风险的问卷 剥削我们的项目将实现四个目标。我们将研究如何神经反应的社会和非社会 基于信任和公平的奖励和决策在整个生命周期中是不同的（目标1）。虽然神经反应 我们的任务所引起的可能与金融剥削的风险有关，因此必须确定如何 这些反应与社会人口因素、认知能力下降、社会情绪功能和 健康（目标2）。值得注意的是，我们对健康状况的量化将利用两个未充分研究的风险因素， 血管健康和白色物质高密度，并将这些因素与经济剥削。 最后，我们将重新测试一部分轻度认知障碍（MCI）的参与者，他们在两年后， 基线访问和评估社会奖励处理和金融剥削风险的变化（目标3）。 总的来说，我们的项目将对社会和财务决策之间的相互作用产生新的见解 在整个生命周期和个体中存在ADRD风险，并通过描述风险开始转化之路 在弱势群体中进行经济剥削的因素。

Project Summary Older adults are often victims of financial exploitation, which results in annual losses of at least $3 billion. Threat of exploitation may be greater in those at risk for Alzheimer's Disease and Related Dementias (ADRD). While most cases of financial exploitation are perpetrated by strangers, perpetration by individuals within the victim's social network (e.g., friends and family) is common. Although these observations highlight the social nature of financial exploitation, we know very little about how neural systems in older adults and those at risk for ADRD integrate information from the social domain to inform financial decision making. Tasks involving social information processing evoke activation in the temporal-parietal junction (TPJ) and dorsomedial prefrontal cortex; whereas tasks involving financial decision making and reward processing evoke activation in the striatum and ventromedial prefrontal cortex. It remains unclear whether responses within these neural systems—and connectivity between them and other regions—differ as a function of age and risk for financial exploitation. We recently demonstrated age differences in TPJ response during social decision-making in the context of financial exchange (e.g., trust and fairness). We have also shown that the influence of social context (e.g., presence of a peer) on striatal responses to reward is attenuated in older adults relative to younger adults. Building on these exciting preliminary data, the goal of the current proposal is to characterize neural responses during social decision making and reward processing across adulthood and quantify how these responses relate to risk for financial exploitation. We will recruit a large sample of adults (ages 21 to 80+ years) to participate in a neuroimaging experiment investigating social reward processing and the interplay between social context and financial decision making. We will also administer neuropsychological and health assessments, as well as questionnaires assessing socioemotional functioning and risk for financial exploitation. Our project will address four aims. We will examine how neural responses to social and nonsocial reward and decisions based on trust and fairness differ across the lifespan (Aim 1). Although neural responses evoked by our tasks may be associated with risk for financial exploitation, it is imperative to determine how such responses interact with sociodemographic factors, cognitive decline, socioemotional functioning, and health (Aim 2). Notably, our quantification of health status will leverage two understudied risk factors for ADRD—vascular health and white matter hyperintensities—and relate these factors to financial exploitation. Finally, we will re-test a subset of participants with mild cognitive impairment (MCI) two years after their baseline visit and assess changes in social reward processing and risk for financial exploitation (Aim 3). Overall, our project will generate new insights into the interplay between social and financial decision making across the lifespan and individuals at risk for ADRD and start the road to translation by characterizing risk factors for financial exploitation among vulnerable groups.