The neural correlates of motivation and behaviour change in human aging

动机是启动和维持思想、情感和行为的能力，以应对我们的环境并实现我们的目标。尽管动机对健康老龄化的个人、社会和社会结果有影响，但其大脑基础尚不清楚。更深入地了解动机学习和行为改变背后的基本机制，对于帮助老年人采取有助于实现其目标的行动至关重要，这些行动包括健康的生活方式选择、碳足迹行为和公民参与。我的研究计划的长期愿景是在训练下一代专家的同时，确定健康人类衰老过程中动机、学习和行为变化之间相互作用的神经行为机制。为了实现这一目标，我采用融合的方法，结合了尖端的行为和多模态脑成像技术，包括功能和结构磁共振成像（MRI）。这一新知识有可能为公共政策提供信息，并影响新的、个性化的、神经生物学信息的策略和技术的发展，以支持成功的认知衰老。

Motivation is the ability to initiate and sustain thoughts, emotions and behaviours to respond to our surroundings and accomplish our goals. Despite the impact of motivation on individual, social and societal outcomes in healthy aging, its brain basis is poorly understood. A deeper understanding of the fundamental mechanisms underlying motivated learning and behaviour change is critical to help older adults engage in actions that serve their goals, from healthful lifestyle choices, to carbon footprint behaviours, to civic engagement. The long-term vision of my research program is to define the neurobehavioural mechanisms that underlie the interaction among motivation, learning and behaviour change in healthy human aging while training the next generation of experts. To accomplish this goal, I apply converging methods that combine cutting-edge behavioural and multi-modal brain imaging techniques including functional and structural magnetic resonance imaging (MRI). This new knowledge has the potential to inform public policy and impact the development of novel, personalized, neurobiologically-informed strategies and technologies to support successful cognitive aging.