The Integration of Emotion and Cognitive Control in the Aging Brain

认知控制（即目标导向的认知和行为调节）是日常生活的关键能力，随着年龄的增长而下降。另一方面，老年人的情绪功能被证明是保留的，甚至是增强的。尽管认知控制和情绪功能维持的年龄相关缺陷在文献中已经分别得到了很好的记录，但对于如何将这两个过程整合起来共同影响认知的年龄差异，我们知之甚少。随着对情绪-认知整合的研究兴趣的迅速兴起（例如，Pessoa, 2008），本研究提出了一种新的方法来确定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，我们解决的问题是，老年人增强的情绪处理是否以及如何与他们认知控制能力的下降相互作用。这些问题将在四个精心设计的行为实验和一个脑电图研究中得到解决。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）来操纵情绪加工，让年轻人和老年人执行认知控制AX- cpt任务（AX版连续表现测试）。在这个任务中，参与者对探测“X”的反应是“目标”，只有当它遵循提示“a”时，对任何其他组合（即AY， BX或BY）的反应是“非目标”。此外，我们还将探讨线索-探针延迟（实验3）和干扰试验（如BX或AY试验；实验4）的频率对两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在AX-CPT任务中对线索和探针的事件相关电位（ERP）反应（实验5）。这项工作将为认知衰老研究做出新的理论和方法贡献。鉴于认知控制在日常活动中的关键作用，该研究结果有望在涉及老年人的认知训练和教育等应用领域产生一些深刻的实际意义，老年人在全球范围内正在迅速增长。

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.