Social Memory with Age: Behavioral and Neural Mechanisms

描述（由申请人提供）：本提案使用行为和神经影像学研究调查社会情绪记忆中与年龄相关的变化。以前的行为研究提供了一些证据，年龄不变的记忆有意义的信息与社会情绪的意义，在其他类型的信息的长期记忆的普遍年龄相关的下降模式相比。然而，到目前为止，人们对支持这些影响的认知机制以及社会情感信息如何对许多认知老化文献中所列的认知下降免疫知之甚少。我们认为，社会情绪信息支持相对年龄相当的一般记忆的社会信息，如记住是否是“好”或“坏”的东西。这种类型的记忆将得到杏仁核和腹内侧前额叶皮层自动参与的支持。在年轻人中，这些区域对社会情感信息做出反应，而不管任务要求如何，我们预测它们支持有助于一般记忆的年龄不变的自动过程。与此相反，我们认为，相对于一般记忆，对情节细节的特定记忆，例如有助于对性格的整体印象的行为，将随着年龄的增长而不成比例地受损。我们预测，老年人比年轻人编码的社会情感信息更少，揭示了记忆中社会信息的特权地位的局限性。对特定细节的记忆需要控制过程，由内侧和腹外侧前额叶皮层辅助，这些过程会受到年龄的影响。拟议的研究将大大促进对以下问题的了解：1）激发社会情绪条件如何改善老年人的记忆，2）社会情绪条件如何限制它们对记忆的贡献，3）衰老如何影响有助于处理社会信息的神经区域的反应，4）支持社会记忆的神经区域如何与辅助控制加工的神经区域相互作用。到目前为止，为数不多的神经影像学研究，以调查衰老对涉及社会情绪信息处理的神经区域的影响，主要集中在对情绪信息的神经反应。我们的研究采取了一种新颖的方法，专注于对有关性格的社会、人际信息的神经反应，这与以前采用的唤起或公开情感的刺激不同。总而言之，这些研究的结果将为随着年龄的增长支持记忆功能的有效方法提供见解，并进一步了解大脑中随年龄变化的相对稳定性和变化模式如何有助于社会记忆。 公共卫生相关性：增加我们对社会情绪信息如何随着年龄的增长而对记忆做出贡献的理解，将为如何提高老年人记忆和决策的有效性提供见解。该提案调查了社会情绪信息增强记忆和利用神经资源的方式，但也探讨了这些益处的局限性。虽然一般记忆及其神经相关性可能会随着年龄的增长而相对保留，但特定记忆的崩溃可能会使老年人容易受到欺诈和欺骗。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): This proposal investigates age-related changes in socioemotional memory using behavioral and neuroimaging studies. Previous behavioral studies provide some evidence of age-invariant memory for meaningful information with socioemotional significance, in contrast to the pattern of pervasive age-related declines in long-term memory for other types of information. However, very little is known thus far about the cognitive mechanisms that support these effects and how socioemotional information is immune to the cognitive declines catalogued in much of the cognitive aging literature. We posit that socioemotional information supports relatively age-equivalent general memory for social information, such as remembering whether something is "good" or "bad". This type of memory will be supported by the automatic engagement of the amygdala and ventromedial prefrontal cortex. In young adults, these regions respond to socioemotional information regardless of the task demands, and we predict that they support age-invariant automatic processes that contribute to general memory. In contrast, we propose that specific memory for the details of episodes, such as the behaviors that contribute to an overall impression of character, will be disproportionately impaired with age, relative to general memory. We predict that older adults will encode less detailed socioemotional information than young adults, revealing limitations to the privileged status afforded social information in memory. Memory for specific details will require controlled processes, subserved by medial and ventrolateral prefrontal cortex, and these processes will be affected by aging. The proposed studies will substantially advance the understanding of: 1) how motivating socioemotional conditions can improve older adults' memory, 2) how socioemotional conditions are limited in the ways that they contribute to memory, 3) how aging affects the response of neural regions that contribute to the processing of social information, and 4) how the neural regions supporting social memory interact with neural regions that subserve controlled processing. The few neuroimaging studies to date to investigate the effects of aging on neural regions implicated in socioemotional information processing focus largely on the neural response to emotional information. Our studies take a novel approach by focusing on the neural response to social, interpersonal information regarding character, which differs from the arousing, or overtly emotional, stimuli that have been employed previously. In sum, the results from these studies will provide insights into effective ways to support memory function with age, as well as advance understanding of how the relative patterns of stability and change in the brain with age contribute to social memory. PUBLIC HEALTH RELEVANCE: Increasing our understanding of how socioemotional information contributes to memory with age will provide insights into how to improve the effectiveness of older adults' memory and decision making. This proposal investigates the ways in which socioemotional information enhances memory and engages neural resources, but also explores the limitations to these benefits. While general memory and its neural correlates may be relatively preserved with age, breakdowns in specific memory could leave older adults vulnerable to fraud and deception.