MECHANISMS OF MOTIVATION, COGNITION & AGING INTERACTIONS: SMALL-GROUP MEETING

描述(由申请者提供)：这项提案要求为一次科学会议提供资金支持，会议的重点是动机-认知-衰老相互作用机制。在过去的十年里，随着认知科学、系统科学、计算神经科学以及社会、情感和人格心理学的进步，动机的研究重新活跃起来，这些心理学开始阐述动机影响低水平信息处理和高水平目标定向行为的机制。然而，在这方面的研究仍然是这样的 由于在不同学科工作的调查人员之间缺乏沟通和整合，这一领域一直受到阻碍。同时，以衰老为重点的研究也指出了 动机是一个潜在的综合性概念，可以解释认知和社会情绪功能与年龄相关的变化的不同轮廓。我们认为，这两个一体化目标实际上是协同的。具体地说，关注心理功能中与年龄相关的变化可能会提供一个独特的窗口，从这个窗口整合动机影响的认知、神经生物学和社会情绪成分。我们建议组织一次科学会议，将工作在动机-认知研究前沿的领先研究人员与一直明确采用动机导向观点的老年研究人员聚集在一起。会议的目的将是提供一个亲密和密集的论坛，从中讨论最新的研究，但更重要的是加强来自不同研究传统的基础研究人员和以老龄化为重点的研究人员之间的跨学科交流和合作。会议结束后，《认知、情感和行为神经科学》(CABN)杂志的一期特刊将传播和吸引人们对会议主题的科学关注，会议参与者和其他应邀调查人员将提交意见书。本期的顶峰文章将是一篇由多人撰写的“宣言式”文章，其中列出了最有希望的研究问题和战略，这些问题和战略可以通过基础研究人员和老年研究人员组成的跨学科团队进行最有成效的研究，从而促进此类团队的形成。 公共卫生相关性：该项目通过促进关于老年人的动机和目标如何变化的科学知识，以及这些变化对认知、社会和情绪功能的影响，对公共卫生具有高度的相关性。更好地理解动机、情绪、认知和衰老之间的关系，对于开发干预措施、增强老年人的决策能力和提高晚年的生活质量至关重要。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): This proposal requests funding support for a scientific meeting focused on Mechanisms of Motivation- Cognition-Aging Interactions. In the last decade, investigations of motivation have been revitalized by progress in cognitive, systems, and computational neuroscience as well as by social, affective, and personality psychology, that begin to elaborate the mechanisms by which motivation influences both lower-level information processing and higher-level goal-directed behaviors. Yet it is still the case that research in this area has been impeded by a lack of communication and integration among investigators working in various disciplines. In parallel, aging-focused research has also pointed to the role of motivation as a potentially integrative construct that may explain the contrasting profiles of age-related change in cognitive vs. socioemotional functioning. We suggest that the two integration goals are, in fact, synergistic. Specifically, a focus on age-related changes in psychological functioning may provide a unique window from which to integrate cognitive, neurobiological, and socio-emotional components of motivational influence. We propose to organize a scientific meeting that brings the leading researchers working at the forefront of motivation-cognition research together with aging researchers that have been explicitly adopting a motivation-oriented perspective in their work. The purpose of the meeting will be to provide an intimate and intensive forum from which to discuss the latest research, but more importantly to increase inter-disciplinary communication and collaboration between basic and aging-focused investigators from various research traditions. Following the conference, a special issue of the journal Cognitive, Affective and Behavioral Neuroscience (CABN) will disseminate and attract scientific attention to the topics covered in the meeting, with submissions coming from meeting participants and other solicited investigators. A capstone article in this issue will be a multi-authored "manifesto-type" piece, which lays out the most promising research questions and strategies that can be most productively investigated via inter-disciplinary teams of basic and aging researchers, thus facilitating the formation of such teams. PUBLIC HEALTH RELEVANCE: This project has high relevance for public health by advancing scientific knowledge regarding how motivations and goals change in older adults, and the implications of these changes for cognitive, social, and emotional functioning. An improved understanding of the relationship between motivation, emotion, cognition, and aging will be critically important in developing interventions that enhance older adults' decision-making and improve quality of life in the later years.