Exploring the Neural Mechanisms Underlying the Effects of Generativity on Well-Being

项目摘要 多产-定义为关心和照顾他人的福祉，特别是年轻人 与老年人更好的身心健康有关。尽管有可能 生殖干预作为改善健康和福祉的重要方法， 人口，这是一个高度不足的研究领域。此外，背后的神经生物学机制 生育对健康和福祉的影响从未得到研究。因此，这项建议旨在 填补了文献中的这些关键空白。本NIA R 01的目标是研究基于书写的 对老年人的健康和炎症的生殖干预，以及检查潜在的 改善背后的神经生物学机制。受试者（n总=200）将被随机分配到6- 一周的干预旨在增加对生殖力的感知（与对照条件相比）。在预处理和 干预后，所有参与者将完成：1）社会，心理和身体的自我报告措施 健康，2）抽血（以评估炎症的多种标志物），和3）神经成像 会话（以评估作为潜在神经生物学机制的神经传导系统）。据推测 与控制条件下的参与者相比，参与生殖干预的参与者将显示：1） 多个健康领域的改善，2）炎症生物标志物的改善（例如， 促炎基因表达的降低），和3）神经传导系统的激活（即， 与威胁相关的区域中神经活动的增加和与威胁相关的神经活动的减少）。 此外，它是假设，激活的神经系统将介导观察到的自我- 据报道，在社会，心理和身体健康，以及炎症活动的改善。本研究 将填补一个关键的空白，在我们的理解的影响，生殖健康和炎症，以及 这些影响的神经生物学基础。最后，这些成果最终可能会大规模公开 对健康的影响，因为它们可以提供一种低成本，低努力的方法来改善健康和福祉， 老年人

Project Summary Generativity—defined as concern and care for the well-being of others, especially younger generations—is related to better physical and mental health in older adults. Despite the potential for generativity interventions to serve as an important method for improving health and well-being in this population, this is a highly understudied area of research. Furthermore, neurobiological mechanisms behind the effects of generativity on health and well-being have never been examined. As such, this proposal aims to fill these critical gaps in the literature. The goal of this NIA R01 is to investigate the effect of a writing-based generativity intervention on well-being and inflammation in older adults, as well as to examine underlying neurobiological mechanisms behind improvements. Participants (ntotal=200) will be randomly assigned to a 6- week intervention aimed at increasing perceptions of generativity (vs. a control condition). During pre- and post-intervention sessions, all participants will complete: 1) self-report measures of social, mental, and physical well-being, 2) a blood draw (in order to assess multiple markers of inflammation), and 3) a neuroimaging session (in order to assess the caregiving system as a potential neurobiological mechanism). It is hypothesized that participants in the generativity intervention, compared to those in the control condition, will show: 1) improvements in multiple domains of well-being, 2) improvements in biological markers of inflammation (e.g., decreases in pro-inflammatory gene expression), and 3) activation of the neural caregiving system (i.e., increases in neural activity in caregiving-related regions and decreases in threat-related neural activity). Furthermore, it is hypothesized that activation of the neural caregiving system will mediate observed self- reported improvements in social, mental, and physical well-being, as well as inflammatory activity. This study will fill a crucial gap in our understanding of the effect of generativity on well-being and inflammation, as well as the underlying neurobiology of these effects. Finally, these results may ultimately have large-scale public health implications, as they could inform a low-cost, low-effort method for improving health and well-being in older adults.