Effects of age-related cognitvie decline on attitudes toward the stigmatized

描述（由申请人提供）：本提案的目的是研究与年龄相关的认知衰退是否会损害老年人调节对被污名化个体的负面偏见的能力。衰老对认知（特别是记忆和执行功能）的有害影响已被广泛证明，但这些损害的程度和原因仍存在广泛争议。因此，该建议使用社会神经科学技术作为研究衰老对认知的影响的替代方法。广泛的研究表明，执行功能在调节对耻辱的偏见方面起着核心作用。因此，本研究将研究衰老对潜在神经机制的影响，这些机制导致了对耻辱的负面偏见的调节。本提案中提出的初步研究表明，老年人比年轻人对被污名化的个体有更多的负面偏见。重要的是，他们的偏见会随着执行功能的下降而加剧。然而，衰老损害老年人调节负面偏见能力的机制仍然是一个谜。目前的建议提出了四项研究来解决这个问题。第一项研究使用功能性磁共振成像（fMRI）来确定与年龄相关的认知衰退是否会影响老年人的社会判断，或者是否有次要因素（例如，队列差异）可能在年轻人和老年人之间出现的社会判断差异中发挥作用。第二项研究调查了这些策略是否受到认知能力的影响。第三项研究使用功能磁共振成像来检查老年人是否依赖于不同于年轻人的神经机制来积极调节他们对耻辱的优势厌恶反应。最后一项研究使用了一种专门的神经成像技术（功能连接）来识别潜在的与年龄相关的神经连接差异，这种差异可能会损害老年人调节对耻辱的负面偏见的能力。这一发现将揭示衰老对社会认知的影响。具体地说，这些研究将确定随着年龄增长而受损的认知机制，以及它们随着年龄增长而下降的程度。从长远来看，这些研究将为开发老年人干预措施以促进健康的社会互动（例如，通过情绪调节和应对机制）提供必要的基础。此外，这些研究将有助于越来越多的研究，以发现认知发展的早期预警信号，这些信号可能表明衰老过程中的异常。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): The goal of this proposal is to examine whether age-related cognitive decline impairs older adults' ability to regulate negative bias against stigmatized individuals. It has been widely demonstrated that aging has a deleterious impact on cognition (specifically memory and executive function), but the extent and cause of these impairments is widely debated. This proposal thus uses social neuroscience techniques as an alternative approach to investigate the effects of aging on cognition. Extensive research has demonstrated that executive function plays a central role in regulating bias against stigma. Thus, this proposal will examine the effects of aging on the underlying neural mechanisms that give rise to regulating negative bias against stigma. Preliminary research presented in this proposal suggests that older adults have more negative bias toward stigmatized individuals than young adults. Importantly, their bias is exacerbated by executive function decline. However, the mechanisms by which aging impairs older adults' ability to regulate negative bias remain a mystery. The current proposal presents four studies to address this question. The first study uses functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) to determine if age-related cognitive decline affects older adults' social judgments, or if a secondary factor (e.g., cohort differences) may play a role in disparities that arise between young and older adults' social judgments. The second study investigates if these strategies are influenced by cognitive capacity. The third study uses fMRI to examine whether older adults rely on different neural mechanisms than young adults to actively regulate their prepotent aversive responses to stigma. The final study uses a specialized neuroimaging technique (functional connectivity) to identify potential age-related differences in neural connectivity that could impair older adults' ability to regulate negative bias against the stigmatized. The findings will shed light on the effects of aging on social cognition. Specifically, these studies will identify both the cognitive mechanisms that are impaired by aging, as well as the extent to which they decline with age. Longer term, these studies will provide the necessary foundation from which to develop interventions with older adults to promote healthy social interactions (e.g., through emotion regulation and coping mechanisms). Further, these studies will contribute to the growing research seeking to detect early warning signs in cognitive development that may be indicative of abnormalities in the aging process.