The interaction between emotion and inhibition in the aging brain: behavioural and neuroimaging studies

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In modern society, individuals are generally overloaded with information. To ensure efficiency, we need to constantly focus attention on task-relevant information and inhibit task-irrelevant information. Previous work by the applicant and colleagues suggests an age-related decline in inhibition (i.e., the ability to inhibit irrelevant information). For example, older adults have trouble concentrating on reading amidst background noises. Echoing this finding, older adults are less able to suppress their brain activity associated with distracting information. Despite the clear evidence for an age-related deficit in inhibition and its consequent disruption in memory performance, we know surprisingly little about how to aid older adults to deal with interference. Inspired by the empirical evidence that the ability to process emotional information preserves or even improves with age, and a recent finding that emotional stimuli can reduce interference in younger adults, I take a novel perspective to determine whether older adults' deficits in inhibition could be moderated by the emotional arousal of the stimuli and through emotion-focused cognitive training. The project will be carried out in three phases. In Phase 1, behavioural data will be collected to examine whether the emotional arousal of stimuli moderates inhibition in performing memory tasks for younger and older adults. In Phase 2, neuroimaging data will be collected using the functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) technique to examine the interaction between the two neural systems underlying inhibition and emotional processing in younger and older adults. These studies will provide novel insights into the understanding of the effects of emotion on inhibition in the aging brain. Finally, in Phase 3, I intend to develop an emotion-focused training protocol to help older adults deal with interference. In sum, the proposed research represents a novel approach to understand age differences in the ability to inhibit interference amidst emotional information. The findings of this research will make significant contributions to the theories of cognitive and neural aging, and will lead to innovative and effective experimental designs and paradigms in the area of aging research.