Aging and cerebral regulation of physiological responses to social emotions

项目总结 许多认知和情感功能在衰老过程中被保留下来，有人认为老年人 更善于调节负面情绪。以前的研究已经阐明了脑内的区域激活 对社会情绪刺激的反应。然而，调节社会心理反应的神经回路 情感以及这些过程在年轻人和老年人之间有何不同，还没有被探索过。 情绪表现在额叶边缘区域和皮质下环路之间的复杂相互作用中 体现生理反应。情绪性刺激与非情绪性刺激相比，能激发强大的自主神经 反应与内感知觉一致。负面情绪与心脏功能减退有关 心率变异性(HRV)和皮肤电导水平(SCL)增加；相比之下，积极的情绪 与HRV升高和SCL降低相关。另一方面，人们对大脑的反应知之甚少。 在社会环境中对情绪刺激的激活与自主反应有关。没有研究表明 考察了大脑活动和自主神经对社会情绪反应之间的因果关系 刺激或衰老对这些调节活动的影响。此R21应用程序旨在解决以下问题 研究的空白。 我们将评估和招募年轻人和老年人在接触社交网络的同时参与脑成像 感情。我们将研究(A)与中性情绪情景相比，社交情绪情景是否以及如何唤起 HRV和SCL的变化，以及这些变化在年轻人和老年人之间的差异；及(B)如何 对社会情绪的区域性反应与HRV和SCL相关，并且是Granger原因，基于我们的工作 格兰杰因果关系分析，以及这些监管活动在年轻人和老年人之间的差异。我们会 同时探讨自主神经对社会情绪刺激的反应、区域激活及其调控。 自主反应与社交焦虑以及年龄和性别对关系的影响有关。 总而言之，这项研究将阐明大脑对社会情绪的反应，以及区域和环路活动是如何 调节对社会情绪的生理反应，以及衰老对这些神经调节的影响 活动。这些潜在的发现可能会促进我们对衰老对情绪体验的影响的了解 并将衰老和情感神经科学研究推向新的方向。

PROJECT SUMMARY Many cognitive and affective functions are preserved during aging and it has been suggested that older people are better at regulating negative emotions. Previous studies have elucidated regional brain activations in response to social emotional stimuli. However, the neural circuits regulating physiological responses to social emotions and how these processes differ between young and old people have not been explored. Emotion is represented in complex interactions between frontal limbic areas and subcortical circuits that embody physiological reactions. Emotional, compared to non-emotional, stimuli elicit robust autonomic responses congruent with interoceptive perception. Negative emotions are associated with decreased heart rate variability (HRV) and increased skin conductance level (SCL); in contrast, positive emotions are associated with increased HRV and decreased SCL. On the other hand, less is known about how cerebral activations to emotional stimuli in a social context are related to autonomic responses. No studies have examined the causal relationship between cerebral activities and autonomic responses to social emotional stimulation or the effects of aging on these regulatory activities. This R21 application aims to address these gaps of research. We will assess and recruit young and old adults to participate in brain imaging while exposed to social emotions. We will examine (a) whether and how social, compared to neutral, emotion scenarios, evoke changes in HRV and SCL, and how these changes vary between young and old individuals; and (b) how regional responses to social emotions correlate with and Granger cause HRV and SCL, building on our work of Granger causality analysis, and how these regulatory activities vary between young and old individuals. We will also explore how autonomic responses, regional activations to social emotional stimulation and their regulation of autonomic responses relate to social anxiety as well as age and gender effects on the relations. Together, the study will elucidate cerebral responses to social emotions, how regional and circuit activities regulate physiological responses to social emotions, and the influence of aging on these neural regulatory activities. The potential findings may advance our knowledge of the effects of aging on emotional experience and move aging and affective neuroscience research in new directions.