The neural correlates of motivation and behaviour change in human aging

动机是启动和维持思想，情绪和行为的能力，以应对我们的环境并实现我们的目标。尽管动机对健康老龄化的个人，社会和社会结果的影响，但其大脑基础却知之甚少。更深入地了解动机性学习和行为改变的基本机制，对于帮助老年人参与为他们的目标服务的行动至关重要，从健康的生活方式选择，到碳足迹行为，再到公民参与。我的研究计划的长期愿景是定义神经行为机制，这些机制是健康人类衰老过程中动机，学习和行为变化之间相互作用的基础，同时培训下一代专家。为了实现这一目标，我采用融合方法，结合联合收割机尖端的行为和多模态脑成像技术，包括功能和结构磁共振成像（MRI）。这些新知识有可能为公共政策提供信息，并影响新颖的、个性化的、神经生物学方面的策略和技术的发展，以支持成功的认知老化。

Motivation is the ability to initiate and sustain thoughts, emotions and behaviours to respond to our surroundings and accomplish our goals. Despite the impact of motivation on individual, social and societal outcomes in healthy aging, its brain basis is poorly understood. A deeper understanding of the fundamental mechanisms underlying motivated learning and behaviour change is critical to help older adults engage in actions that serve their goals, from healthful lifestyle choices, to carbon footprint behaviours, to civic engagement. The long-term vision of my research program is to define the neurobehavioural mechanisms that underlie the interaction among motivation, learning and behaviour change in healthy human aging while training the next generation of experts. To accomplish this goal, I apply converging methods that combine cutting-edge behavioural and multi-modal brain imaging techniques including functional and structural magnetic resonance imaging (MRI). This new knowledge has the potential to inform public policy and impact the development of novel, personalized, neurobiologically-informed strategies and technologies to support successful cognitive aging.