"Hot" and "cold" decision making in younger and older adults

我们在“心血来潮”时所做的选择往往不同于我们在“冷静和镇定”时所做的选择。例子包括不安全的性行为、冲动购物和考虑不周的网络行为。觉醒对决策的影响会随着年龄的增长而改变吗？正常的衰老与神经网络的结构和功能完整性下降有关，神经网络支持注意力和认知控制等“冷”认知功能。相比之下，参与唤醒的大脑回路显示出与年龄相关的相对较小的变化。研究假设来源于最近的文献，表明唤醒可能会缩小注意力，而衰老可能与对损失前景的唤醒反应减少有关。这些研究将使用一种新颖的唤醒调节决策任务，让决策者面临现实的财务选择。使用多种方法(选择行为和主观评级；脑电；眼球跟踪；和功能磁共振成像)，*回答这些基本问题将显著提高决策神经科学中关于衰老的知识。拟议研究的结果还将为适合年龄的决策工具设计方面的创新提供信息，有可能支持医疗保健和金融等重要领域的适应性选择。

Choices we make "in the heat of the moment" are often different from those we make while "cool and collected." Examples include unsafe sex, impulse purchases and ill-considered online behaviour. Does the influence of arousal on decision making change as we get older?******Normal aging is associated with decline in the structural and functional integrity of neural networks that support "cold" cognitive functions such as attention and cognitive control. In contrast, brain circuits involved in arousal show relatively little age-related change. Despite significant advances in the growing discipline of "decision neuroscience of aging" in recent years, the field still lacks a comprehensive account of how hot and cold functions shape decisions across the adult lifespan.******The proposed studies will be the first to systematically examine the effects of emotional arousal on decisions about financial gains and losses in younger and older adults. Research hypotheses are derived from recent literature indicating that arousal may narrow attention, and that aging may be associated with a reduced arousal response to loss prospects. The studies will use a novel arousal-modulated decision task that confronts decision makers with realistic financial choices. Using a multi-method approach (choice behaviour and subjective ratings; EEG; eye tracking; and functional magnetic resonance imaging), the proposed studies will address four novel research questions:******1) How does arousal affect the influence of key decision factors (temporal delay and risk) on decisions about potential gains and losses in younger and older adults?***2) What are the temporal dynamics of early arousal-modulated decision processes in younger and older adults?***3) How does arousal modulate activity in functional brain networks involved in gain- and loss-related decisions?***4) Do laboratory measures of arousal-biased decision making predict real-world decision making?******Answering these fundamental questions will significantly advance knowledge within the decision neuroscience of aging. Findings from the proposed studies will also inform innovation in the design of age-appropriate decision tools, with the potential to support adaptive choices in important domains such as healthcare and finance.