Mechanisms supporting prioritized memory for self-relevant and emotional information with age

项目摘要 尽管年龄的增长会影响有效编码信息的能力， 仍然能够记住情绪唤起信息和自我参考 比其他类型的信息更好。到目前为止，关于情感的文献 记忆和自我参照记忆是独立进行的， 讨论是否有重叠的机制，支持相对 与这两个领域相关的记忆增强在老化中得以保留。的 拟议的研究汇集了两名认知老化研究人员， 参照处理（安吉拉·古奇斯）和情绪处理（伊丽莎白 Kensinger）和一位擅长结构方程建模的定量心理学家 多层次建模（Ehri Ryu）。这项研究使用行为，事件- 相关电位和功能磁共振成像方法检测两个主要 假设第一，有一套共同的认知和神经机制， 参与自我参照信息和情感信息的编码，以及 这组共享进程随着年龄的增长而相对保留（目标1）。二是 患有遗忘型轻度认知障碍（aMCI）的个体继续表现出记忆 从情感和自我参考材料中受益，这些好处是 相关（目标2）。为此目的的研究将与安德鲁合作进行 Budson是aMCI和阿尔茨海默病的专家。通过将两个领域 认知老化的研究，传统上是独立进行的， 一项拟议中的研究可能会为社会情绪处理和记忆提供新的线索 在整个成年人的生命周期中。此外，通过关注相对 在老年人中保存记忆功能，拟议的研究具有潜力 阐明可以利用的机制类型，以最大限度地提高 成年人的记忆表现，包括aMCI患者。

Project Summary Although advancing age affects the ability to encode information effectively, older adults remain able to remember emotionally arousing information and self-referential information better than other types of information. To date, the literatures on emotional memory and self-referential memory have proceeded independently, with little discussion of whether there are overlapping mechanisms that support the relatively preserved memory enhancements associated with these two domains in aging. The proposed research brings together two cognitive aging researchers with expertise in self- referential processing (Angela Gutchess) and emotional processing (Elizabeth Kensinger) and a quantitative psychologist with expertise in structural equation modeling and multi-level modeling (Ehri Ryu). The proposed research uses behavioral, event- related potential, and functional magnetic resonance imaging methods to test two main hypotheses. First, that there is a shared set of cognitive and neural mechanisms engaged for the encoding of self-referential information and emotional information, and that this set of shared processes is relatively preserved with aging (Aim 1). Second, that individuals with amnestic mild cognitive impairment (aMCI) continue to show memory benefits from emotional and self-referential material, and that these benefits are correlated (Aim 2). Research for this aim will be conducted in collaboration with Andrew Budson, an expert in aMCI and Alzheimer's disease. By bringing together two domains of cognitive aging research that have traditionally proceeded independently, the proposed research is likely to shed new light on socioemotional processing and memory systems across the adult lifespan. Moreover, by focusing on areas of relatively preserved memory function among older adults, the proposed research has the potential to elucidate the types of mechanisms that can be harnessed to maximally improve memory performance across the adult lifespan, including among those with aMCI.