The Integration of Emotion and Cognitive Control in the Aging Brain

衰老大脑中情绪和认知控制的整合

• 批准号: RGPIN-2014-06153
• 负责人: Yang, Lixia
• 金额: $ 2.19万
• 依托单位: Ryerson University
• 依托单位国家: 加拿大
• 项目类别: Discovery Grants Program - Individual
• 财政年份: 2014
• 资助国家: 加拿大
• 起止时间: 2014-01-01 至 2015-12-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nserc-crsng.gc.ca/ase-oro/Details-Detailles_eng.asp?id=567624
• 关键词: Integration; Emotion; Cognitive; Control; Aging

Cognitive control (i.e., goal-directed cognitive and behavioural regulation), a crucial ability for everyday life, tends to decline with age. On the other hand, emotional functioning has been shown to be preserved or even enhanced in older adults. Although age-associated deficits in cognitive control and maintenance in emotional functioning have been well-documented separately in the literature, little is known about how the two processes could be integrated to jointly affect age differences in cognition. Along with the rapidly emerging research interest in emotion-cognition integration (e.g., Pessoa, 2008), the proposed research takes a novel approach to identify behavioural indexes and neural mechanisms associated with age differences in cognitive control in the face of emotion. Specifically, we address questions of whether and how older adults’ enhanced emotional processing interacts with their declines in cognitive control. These questions will be addressed in four well-designed behavioural experiments and one EEG study. To assess the effect of emotion, we will manipulate emotional processing by introducing emotional stimuli (Experiment 1) or motivating emotional regulation through mood inductions (Experiment 2) with young and older adults performing the cognitive control AX-CPT task (AX version of the Continuous Performance Test). In this task, participants respond “target” to a probe “X” only if it follows a cue “A”, and respond “non-target” to any other combinations (i.e., AY, BX, or BY). Furthermore, we intend to examine the moderating effect of cue-probe delay (Experiment 3) and the frequency of interference trials (e.g., BX or AY trials; Experiment 4) in the effect of emotion on cognitive control in both age groups. Finally, to assess the neural correlates, electroencephalography (EEG) will be used to collect Event-Related-Potential (ERP) responses of young and older adults to the cue and probe in the AX-CPT task (Experiment 5). The proposed work will make novel theoretical and methodological contributions to cognitive aging research. Given the critical role of cognitive control in daily activities, the findings are expected to have some insightful practical implications in such applied domains as cognitive training and education involving older adults, a population that is rapidly growing across the world.

认知控制（即以目标为导向的认知和行为调节）是日常生活的重要能力，但往往会随着年龄的增长而下降。另一方面，老年人的情绪功能得到保留甚至增强。尽管与年龄相关的认知控制和情绪功能维持缺陷已在文献中分别得到充分记录，但人们对如何整合这两个过程以共同影响认知的年龄差异知之甚少。随着对情绪认知整合的研究兴趣迅速兴起（例如，Pessoa，2008），本研究采用了一种新颖的方法来识别与面对情绪时认知控制的年龄差异相关的行为指标和神经机制。具体来说，我们解决了老年人情绪处理增强是否以及如何与认知控制能力下降相互作用的问题。这些问题将通过四项精心设计的行为实验和一项脑电图研究来解决。为了评估情绪的影响，我们将通过引入情绪刺激（实验 1）或通过情绪诱导激发情绪调节（实验 2）来操纵情绪处理，让年轻人和老年人执行认知控制 AX-CPT 任务（连续性能测试的 AX 版本）。在此任务中，参与者只有在遵循提示“A”时才对探针“X”做出“目标”响应，并对任何其他组合（即 AY、BX 或 BY）响应“非目标”。此外，我们打算检查线索探测延迟（实验 3）和干扰试验频率（例如，BX 或 AY 试验；实验 4）对两个年龄组情绪对认知控制的影响的调节作用。最后，为了评估神经相关性，将使用脑电图 (EEG) 收集年轻人和老年人对 AX-CPT 任务中的提示和探测的事件相关电位 (ERP) 反应（实验 5）。拟议的工作将为认知衰老研究做出新颖的理论和方法论贡献。鉴于认知控制在日常活动中的关键作用，这些发现预计将在涉及老年人（世界各地人口迅速增长）的认知训练和教育等应用领域产生一些富有洞察力的实际意义。