Degraded Rationality: Subclinical Neuropathology and Neuroeconomic Behavior in Ol

描述（由申请人提供）：新兴的神经经济学领域，代表了经济学，心理学和神经科学之间的接口，为理解各种人类社会行为背后的神经机制提供了机会。根据RFA-AG-06-011衰老神经经济学（R21）提交的拟议研究将把经济行为，包括时间贴现、风险承受能力、信任和金融知识纳入正在进行的衰老纵向流行病学临床病理研究，即拉什记忆和衰老项目。我们将检验阿尔茨海默病病理解释无痴呆老年人经济行为的个体差异的假设。初步数据表明，大多数无痴呆的老年人在服务于经济行为的神经系统中积累阿尔茨海默病病理（神经原纤维缠结和淀粉样蛋白）。这些区域包括支持分析性决策的区域，包括背外侧前额叶皮层、后顶叶皮层和前扣带皮层，以及支持情感性决策的区域，包括伏隔核、眶额叶皮层、杏仁核、前尾状核和前岛叶皮层。我们引入“退化理性”一词，指的是大脑病理变化对两种经济行为的影响。研究结果对老年人经济决策的经济建模具有重要意义。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): The burgeoning field of neuroeconomics, representing the interface between economics, psychology, and neuroscience, offers the opportunity to understand the neural mechanisms underlying a wide variety of human social behaviors. The proposed study, submitted in response to RFA-AG-06-011 Neuroeconomics of Aging (R21), will incorporate economic behaviors, including temporal discounting, risk tolerance, trust, and financial literacy into an ongoing longitudinal epidemiologic clinical-pathologic study of aging, the Rush Memory and Aging Project. We will test the hypothesis that Alzheimer's disease pathology accounts for individual differences in economic behaviors in older persons without dementia. Preliminary data is provided demonstrating that the majority of older persons without dementia accumulate Alzheimer's disease pathology (neurofibrillary tangles and amyloid) in neural systems that sub serve economic behaviors. These include regions that support analytic decision making including the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex, posterior parietal cortex, and anterior cingulate cortex, and regions that support affective decision making including nucleus accumbens, orbital frontal cortex, amygdala, anterior caudate nucleus, and anterior insular cortex. We introduce the term degraded rationality to refer to the consequences of pathological changes in the brain on both economic behaviors. The results have important implications for economic modeling of the economic decisions of older persons. The proposed study offers the possibility of identifying the pathologic basis individual differences in economic behaviors in older persons without clinical dementia. As the U.S. population ages, a greater understanding of economic decision making in old age as it applies to savings behavior, inter-generational transfers, retirement planning, advanced directives, and insurance decisions are needed. The results of the proposed study could lay the foundation for a series of studies that address these and other aspects of economic decision making in older persons without dementia.