The Integration of Emotion and Cognitive Control in the Aging Brain

认知控制（即，以目标为导向的认知和行为调节能力）是日常生活中的一项关键能力，但随着年龄的增长，这种能力往往会下降。另一方面，情绪功能已被证明在老年人中得到保留甚至增强。虽然与年龄相关的认知控制和情绪功能的维护缺陷已分别在文献中得到充分证明，但很少有人知道这两个过程如何整合，共同影响认知的年龄差异。沿着对情绪-认知整合的快速兴起的研究兴趣（例如，Pessoa，2008），拟议的研究采取了一种新的方法来确定行为指数和神经机制与面对情绪时认知控制的年龄差异相关。具体来说，我们解决的问题，老年人的增强情绪处理是否以及如何与他们的认知控制下降相互作用。这些问题将在四个精心设计的行为实验和一个EEG研究中得到解决。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（实验2）激励情绪调节来操纵情绪处理，年轻人和老年人执行认知控制AX-CPT任务（AX版本的连续性能测试）。在这项任务中，参与者只有在探测器“X“遵循提示“A”时才对探测器“X”做出“目标”反应，而对任何其他组合（即，AY、BX或BY）。此外，我们打算检查线索探测延迟（实验3）和干扰试验（例如，BX或AY试验;实验4）在两个年龄组的情绪对认知控制的影响。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）。这项工作将为认知老化的研究做出新的理论和方法上的贡献。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的认知训练和教育等应用领域产生一些有见地的实际影响，老年人的人口在世界各地迅速增长。

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.