Neural Compensation and Economic Decision Making in Aging

描述（由申请人提供）：决策的变化在整个衰老过程中普遍存在。例如，老年人的决策在经济上更为保守，更容易受到无关信息的影响。从历史上看，这些缺陷已经被解释使用来自认知心理学行为研究的概念。在这个应用程序中，我们认为，一个不同的，神经经济学的方法是必要的，一个增强的结构来自行为现象与那些来自神经科学研究。我们的方法基于三个假设。首先，我们假设中年人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：特别是缺乏获得源信息的途径，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他们对行为的影响，而且还表现在他们对大脑功能的特定模式的影响，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将更好地预测行为和基于大脑的结构的组合比单独的信息来源。 为了验证这些预测，我们提出了一个行为和功能神经影像学研究的综合计划。中年（40- 50岁）和接近退休（60- 70岁）的成年人将首先接受各种标准认知任务的筛查。两个功能磁共振成像实验将使用一个经济上有效的广告范例，其中受试者将看到一系列产品伴随着与源属性的valenced事实。一个实验将操纵来源的可信度，而另一个将操纵信息负载。与标准神经经济学范式（例如，博弈之间的决定），受试者将在稍后的时间段报告他们关于项目的判断（例如，模仿购买延迟）。我们将创建回归模型，包括行为的认知测量和大脑功能的神经科学测量，例如额叶补偿的程度。我们的关键，尽管是探索性的预测，是产品态度和真实的世界金融行为（例如，受试者投资组合的风险水平）将通过使用行为和神经科学结构得到最好的解释。 老年人的决策受到许多偏见的影响，从难以准确整合信息到越来越依赖情感信息，这些偏见导致投资，医疗保健选择和其他经济领域的问题。拟议中的实验将阐明老年人大脑中的变化，这些变化是决策偏见的基础。更好地了解这种大脑行为关系可能会导致干预或临床进步，以纠正老年人决策问题，从而对公共卫生有益。

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.