Neural Compensation and Economic Decision Making in Aging

描述（由申请人提供）：在整个老龄化过程中，决策的变化无处不在。例如，老年人的决定在经济上更保守，更有可能受到不相关信息的影响。从历史上看，这些缺陷已经用认知心理学中行为研究的概念来解释。在这一应用中，我们认为有必要采用一种不同的神经经济学方法，将源自行为现象的构造与源自神经科学研究的构造相结合。我们的方法基于三个假设。首先，我们假设中年和临近退休的成年人之间的许多决策差异是信息整合缺陷的结果：特别是缺乏获取源信息的途径，难以抑制无关信息，以及对情感信息的依赖增加。其次，我们认为年龄相关的缺陷不仅表现在对行为的影响上，还表现在对特定脑功能模式的影响上，因为年轻人和老年人使用不同的认知能力来解决决策问题。第三，我们假设实验室和现实世界的决策行为都可以通过行为和基于大脑的结构相结合来预测，而不是单独使用任何一种信息来源。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): Changes in decision making are ubiquitous throughout aging. As examples, the decisions of older adults are more economically conservative and more likely to be compromised by irrelevant information. Historically, these deficits have been explained using concepts derived from behavioral research within cognitive psychology. In this application, we contend that a different, neuroeconomic approach is necessary, one that augments constructs derived from behavioral phenomena with those derived from neuroscientific research. Our approach rests on three hypotheses. First, we hypothesize that many decision-making differences between middle-aged and peri-retirement adults are the result of deficits in information integration: specifically a lack of access to source information, a difficulty in inhibiting irrelevant information, and an increased reliance on emotional information. Second, we contend that age-related deficits are manifest not only in their effects on behavior, but also in their effects on specific patterns of brain function, as younger and older adults employ different sets of cognitive competencies to solve decision problems. Third, we hypothesize that both laboratory and real-world decision behavior will be better predicted by a combination of behavioral and brain- based constructs than by either source of information alone. To test these predictions, we propose an integrated program of behavioral and functional neuroimaging research. Middle aged (40-50y) and peri-retirement (60-70y) adults will be initially screened on a variety of standard cognitive tasks. Two fMRI experiments will use an economically valid advertising paradigm, in which subjects will view a series of products accompanied by valenced facts with source attribution. One experiment will manipulate source credibility, while the other will manipulate information load. Unlike standard neuroeconomic paradigms (e.g., decisions between gambles), subjects will report their judgments about the items at a later time period (e.g., mimicking the advertising-purchasing delay). We will create regression models that include both cognitive measures of behavior and neuroscience measures of brain function, such as the degree of frontal compensation. Our critical, albeit exploratory prediction, is that both product attitudes and real world financial behavior (e.g., the risk level of the subjects' portfolios) will be best explained by using both behavioral and neuroscience constructs. The decision making of older adults is subject to many biases, from a difficulty in accurately integrating information to the increased reliance on emotional information, and these biases lead to problems in investment, health-care choice, and other economic arenas. The proposed experiments will elucidate the changes in the elderly brain that underlie decision-making biases. Better understanding of this brain-behavior relation could lead to interventions or clinical advances that remediate problems with decision making in the elderly, resulting in benefits to public health.