Neural Mechanisms of Social Decision Making in Aging

描述（由申请人提供）：美国目前的老年人数量是其历史上任何时候都最多的，预计这一数字将在未来20年迅速增加。老年人口的迅速增加突出表明，有必要更好地了解伴随老龄化而来的变化，这些变化可能有助于晚年的心理健康和福祉。衰老的一个重要且相对未被探索的方面与社会和情感领域的决策发生的变化有关。在一生中做出正确的社会和情感决定是幸福的重要因素。一个描述社会和情感随年龄增长而繁荣的模型是社会情感选择理论。根据社会情绪选择性理论，在成年人的一生中，人们越来越关注积极情绪，因此老年人会选择性地选择积极情绪体验可能性高的社会互动。在这种情况下，社会交往仅限于好朋友和家人，当社会交往的数量减少时，人们会获得更大的满足感和幸福感。支持这种增强的社会情感决策的潜在神经机制得到的关注相对较少，但它们很重要，因为它们可以防止社会孤立和精神疾病。当前提案的具体目的是研究大脑如何关联社会情感决策的两个明确方面——对社会对象（即人）的初步评估和情感学习——随着年龄的增长而改变。我们将重点关注参与这些决策过程的两个特定大脑区域，即腹内侧前额叶皮层和杏仁核。我们计划收集和分析结构和功能磁共振成像数据以及社会网络特征和幸福感的自我报告措施。总体假设是，在社会情绪决策过程中，腹内侧前额叶皮层-杏仁核回路的年龄相关差异与衰老过程中社会情绪选择和幸福感密切相关。目的1将研究在社会情绪决策的不同方面，腹内侧前额叶皮层和杏仁核之间结构-功能关系的年龄相关变化。目的2将研究腹内侧前额叶皮层-杏仁核回路如何与整个生命周期的社会网络特征和幸福感相关。这些研究结果将阐明老年人健康社会情绪决策和幸福感的神经基础。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): The United States currently has the largest number of older adults at any time in its history, and this number is expected to rapidly increase over the next 20 years. This rapid increase in the aged population highlights the need to better understand changes that accompany aging and which may contribute to mental health and well-being in later life. One important and relatively unexplored aspect of aging relates to the changes that occur with decision making in the social and emotional realms. Making the correct social and emotional decisions during the lifespan is an essential contributor to well-being. One model that describes social and emotional flourishing with aging is Socioemotional Selectivity theory. According to Socioemotional Selectivity theory, there is an increasing focus on positive emotion over the adult lifespan such that older individuals selectively choose social interactions where the likelihood of positive emotional experience is high. In this setting, social contacts are limited to good friends and family, and greater satisfaction and well-being is achieved while the number of social contacts decreases. The underlying neural mechanisms that support this enhanced Socioemotional decision-making have received relatively little attention, but are important as they may protect from social isolation and mental illness. The specific purpose of the current proposal is to examine how the brain correlates of two well defined aspects of Socioemotional decision making - primary appraisal and affective learning about social objects (i.e., people) - are altered with aging. We will focus on two specific brain areas involved in these decision-making processes, the ventromedial prefrontal cortex and the amygdala. We plan to collect and analyze structural and functional magnetic resonance imaging data and self-report measures of social network characteristics and well-being. The overarching hypothesis is that age-related differences in ventromedial prefrontal cortex-amygdala circuitry during Socioemotional decision- making are closely related to Socioemotional selectivity and well-being in aging. Aim 1 will investigate age-related changes in the structure-function relationships between the ventromedial prefrontal cortex and amygdala during different aspects of Socioemotional decision making. Aim 2 will investigate how the ventromedial prefrontal cortex-amygdala circuitry relates to social network characteristics and well-being across the lifespan. The results of these studies will elucidate the neural bases of healthy Socioemotional decision-making and well-being in aging.