scholarly journals Advanced Aging Enhances the Positivity Effect in Memory: Due to Cognitive Control or Age-Related Decline in Emotional Processing?

2019 ◽  
Vol 5 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Michiko Sakaki ◽  
Jasmine A. L. Raw ◽  
Jamie Findlay ◽  
Mariel Thottam
Keyword(s):  
Older Adults ◽  
Cognitive Control ◽  
Emotional Processing ◽  
Aging Brain ◽  
Control Mechanisms ◽  
Younger Adults ◽  
Positivity Effect ◽  
Old Adults ◽  
Age Related ◽  
Conditioned Responses

Older adults typically remember more positive than negative information compared to their younger counterparts; a phenomenon referred to as the ‘positivity effect.’ According to the socioemotional selectivity theory (SST), the positivity effect derives from the age-related motivational shift towards attaining emotionally meaningful goals which become more important as the perception of future time becomes more limited. Cognitive control mechanisms are critical in achieving such goals and therefore SST predicts that the positivity effect is associated with preserved cognitive control mechanisms in older adults. In contrast, the aging-brain model suggests that the positivity effect is driven by an age-related decline in the amygdala which is responsible for emotional processing and emotional learning. The aim of the current research was to address whether the age-related positivity effect is associated with cognitive control or impaired emotional processing associated with aging. We included older old adults, younger old adults and younger adults and tested their memory for emotional stimuli, cognitive control and amygdala-dependent fear conditioned responses. Consistent with prior research, older adults, relative to younger adults, demonstrate better memory for positive over negative images. We further found that within a group of older adults, the positivity effect increases as a function of age, such that older old adults demonstrated a greater positivity effect compared to younger older adults. Furthermore, the positivity effect in older old adults was associated with preserved cognitive control, supporting the prediction of SST. Contrary to the prediction of the aging-brain model, participants across all groups demonstrated similar enhanced skin conductance responses to fear conditioned stimuli – responses known to rely on the amygdala. Our results support SST and suggest that the positivity effect in older adults is achieved by the preserved cognitive control mechanisms and is not a reflection of the impaired emotional function associated with age.

Age-Related Differences in Motivational Integration and Cognitive Control

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Debbie Marianne Yee ◽  
Sarah L Adams ◽  
Asad Beck ◽  
Todd Samuel Braver
Keyword(s):  
Older Adults ◽  
Decision Making ◽  
Cognitive Control ◽  
Task Performance ◽  
Cognitive Task ◽  
Monetary Reward ◽  
Potential Candidate ◽  
Younger Adults ◽  
Age Related ◽  
Cognitive Task Performance

Motivational incentives play an influential role in value-based decision-making and cognitive control. A compelling hypothesis in the literature suggests that the brain integrates the motivational value of diverse incentives (e.g., motivational integration) into a common currency value signal that influences decision-making and behavior. To investigate whether motivational integration processes change during healthy aging, we tested older (N=44) and younger (N=54) adults in an innovative incentive integration task paradigm that establishes dissociable and additive effects of liquid (e.g., juice, neutral, saltwater) and monetary incentives on cognitive task performance. The results reveal that motivational incentives improve cognitive task performance in both older and younger adults, providing novel evidence demonstrating that age-related cognitive control deficits can be ameliorated with sufficient incentive motivation. Additional analyses revealed clear age-related differences in motivational integration. Younger adult task performance was modulated by both monetary and liquid incentives, whereas monetary reward effects were more gradual in older adults and more strongly impacted by trial-by-trial performance feedback. A surprising discovery was that older adults shifted attention from liquid valence toward monetary reward throughout task performance, but younger adults shifted attention from monetary reward toward integrating both monetary reward and liquid valence by the end of the task, suggesting differential strategic utilization of incentives. Together these data suggest that older adults may have impairments in incentive integration, and employ different motivational strategies to improve cognitive task performance. The findings suggest potential candidate neural mechanisms that may serve as the locus of age-related change, providing targets for future cognitive neuroscience investigations.

scholarly journals Adult age differences in subjective responses to dynamic socioemotional incentives

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sade J Abiodun ◽  
Galen McAllister ◽  
Gregory Russell Samanez-Larkin ◽  
Kendra Leigh Seaman
Keyword(s):  
Older Adults ◽  
Age Differences ◽  
Emotional Valence ◽  
Incentive Motivation ◽  
Social Signals ◽  
Younger Adults ◽  
Positivity Effect ◽  
Adult Age ◽  
Age Related ◽  
Adult Age Differences

Facial expressions are powerful communicative social signals that motivate feelings and action in the observer. However, research on incentive motivation has overwhelmingly focused on money and points and the limited research on social incentives has been mostly focused on responses in young adulthood. Previous research on the age-related positivity effect and adult age differences in social motivation suggest that older adults might experience higher levels of positive arousal to socioemotional stimuli than younger adults. Affect ratings following dynamic emotional expressions (anger, happiness, sadness) varying in magnitude of expression showed that higher magnitude expressions elicited higher arousal and valence ratings. Older adults did not differ significantly in levels of arousal when compared to younger adults, however their ratings of emotional valence were significantly higher as the magnitude of expressions increased. The findings provide novel evidence that socioemotional incentives may be relatively more reinforcing as adults age. More generally, these dynamic socioemotional stimuli that vary in magnitude are ideal for future studies of more naturalistic affect elicitation, studies of social incentive processing, and use in incentive-driven choice tasks.

scholarly journals Me Time, or We Time? Age Differences in Motivation for Exercise

2018 ◽  
Vol 59 (4) ◽  
pp. 709-717 ◽  
Author(s):  
Crystal N Steltenpohl ◽  
Michael Shuster ◽  
Eric Peist ◽  
Amber Pham ◽  
Joseph A Mikels
Keyword(s):  
Older Adults ◽  
Negative Influence ◽  
Exercise Motivation ◽  
Younger Adults ◽  
Positivity Effect ◽  
Motivational Messages ◽  
Age Related ◽  
Important Health ◽  
Important Health Issue ◽  
Meaningful Relationships

Abstract Background and Objectives Increasing exercise continues to be an important health issue for both older and younger adults. Researchers have suggested several methods for increasing exercise motivation. Socioemotional selectivity theory (SST) posits that people’s motivation shift from future-oriented instrumental goals to present-oriented emotionally meaningful goals as we age, which provides insight into how people’s motivations for exercise may differ for older versus younger adults. The aim of our study was to examine how exercise motivation differs for older versus younger adults. Research Design and Methods Older (greater than 59 years old) and younger (aged 18–26 years) adults participated in focus groups. They discussed exercise motivation (or lack thereof), motivators and barriers to exercise, and preferences about when, where, and with whom they exercise. Focus group transcripts were analyzed using direct content analysis and iterative categorization. Results Consistent with SST, younger adults generally preferred to exercise alone to achieve instrumental fitness goals, whereas older adults preferred to exercise with others. Additionally, older adults tend to consider peripheral others (e.g., strangers, acquaintances), as a positive rather than a negative influence. Discussion and Implications SST provides a framework for exploring age-related shifts in exercise motivation. Additionally, the positivity effect was reflected in how older adults evaluated the influence of peripheral others. Motivational messages could be tailored to increase health behavior changes by focusing on instrumental exercise goals for younger adults and exercise focused on meaningful relationships for older adults.

Examining Positivity Effect and Working Memory in Young-Old and Very Old Adults Using EEG-Derived Cognitive State Metrics

2019 ◽  
Vol 41 (10) ◽  
pp. 1014-1035
Author(s):  
Joelle C. Ruthig ◽  
Dmitri P. Poltavski ◽  
Thomas Petros
Keyword(s):  
Older Adults ◽  
Working Memory ◽  
Memory Task ◽  
Cognitive State ◽  
Emotional Stimuli ◽  
Very Old ◽  
Positivity Effect ◽  
Old Adults ◽  
Age Related ◽  
Young Old

The positivity effect among older adults is a tendency to process more positive and/or less negative emotional stimuli compared to younger adults, with unknown upper age boundaries. Cognitive and emotional working memory were assessed in young-old adults (60–75) and very old adults (VOAs; 80+) to determine whether emotional working memory declines similar to the age-related decline of cognitive working memory. The moderating role of valence on the link between age and emotional working memory was examined to identify change in positivity effect with advanced age. Electroencephalography (EEG) markers of cognitive workload and engagement were obtained to test the theory of cognitive resource allocation in older adults’ emotional stimuli processing. EEG recordings were collected during cognitive memory task and emotional working memory tasks that required rating emotional intensity of images pairs. Results indicate a positivity effect among VOAs that does not require additional cognitive effort and is not likely to diminish with age.

scholarly journals Effect of Cognitive Control on Attentional Processing of Emotional Information Among Older Adults: Evidence From an Eye-Tracking Study

2021 ◽  
Vol 13 ◽  
Author(s):  
Haining Liu ◽  
Haihong Liu ◽  
Feng Li ◽  
Buxin Han ◽  
Cuili Wang
Keyword(s):  
Older Adults ◽  
Cognitive Control ◽  
Eye Tracking ◽  
Healthy Aging ◽  
Older Individuals ◽  
Younger Adults ◽  
Spatial Cueing ◽  
Age Related ◽  
Cueing Task ◽  
Engagement And Disengagement

Background: Although numerous studies have suggested that the gradually increasing selective preference for positive information over negative information in older adults depends on cognitive control processes, few have reported the characteristics of different attention stages in the emotional processing of older individuals. The present study used a real-time eye-tracking technique to disentangle the attentional engagement and disengagement processes involved in age-related positivity effect (PE).Methods: Eye movement data from a spatial-cueing task were obtained for 32 older and 32 younger healthy participants. The spatial-cueing task with varied cognitive loads appeared to be an effective way to explore the role of cognitive control during the attention engagement and disengagement stages of emotion processing.Results: Compared with younger adults, older participants showed more positive gaze preferences when cognitive resources were sufficient for face processing at the attention engagement stage. However, the age-related PE was not observed at the attention disengagement stage because older adults had more difficulty disengaging from fearful faces than did the younger adults due to the consumption of attention by the explicit target judgment.Conclusion: The present study highlights how cognitive control moderates positive gaze preferences at different attention processing stages. These findings may have far-reaching implications for understanding, preventing, and intervening in unsuccessful aging and, thus, in promoting active and healthy aging.

scholarly journals Older adults benefit from more widespread brain network integration during working memory

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
C.A. Crowell ◽  
S.W. Davis ◽  
L. Beynel ◽  
L. Deng ◽  
D. Lakhlani ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Older Adults ◽  
Working Memory ◽  
Network Connectivity ◽  
Task Demands ◽  
Global Network ◽  
Aging Brain ◽  
Network Integration ◽  
Younger Adults ◽  
Age Related ◽  
Cortical Regions

AbstractNeuroimaging evidence suggests that the aging brain relies on a more distributed set of cortical regions than younger adults in order to maintain successful levels of performance during demanding cognitive tasks. However, it remains unclear how task demands give rise to this age-related expansion in cortical networks. To investigate this issue, we used functional magnetic resonance imaging to measure univariate activity, network connectivity, and cognitive performance in younger and older adults during a working memory (WM) task. In the WM task investigated, participants hold letters online (maintenance) while reordering them alphabetically (manipulation). WM load was titrated to obtain four individualized difficulty levels. Network integration—defined as the ratio of within-versus between-network connectivity—was linked to individual differences in WM capacity. The study yielded three main findings. First, as task difficulty increased, network integration decreased in younger adults, whereas it increased in older adults. Second, age-related increases in network integration were driven by increases in right hemispheric connectivity to both left and right cortical regions, a finding that helps to reconcile extant theories of compensatory recruitment in aging to address the multivariate dynamics of global network functioning. Lastly, older adults with higher WM capacity demonstrated higher levels of network integration in the most difficult condition. These results shed light on the mechanisms of age-related network reorganization by suggesting that changes in network connectivity may act as an adaptive form of compensation, with older adults recruiting a more distributed cortical network as task demands increase.Significance statementOlder adults often activate brain regions not engaged by younger adults, but the circumstances under which this widespread network emerges are unclear. Here, we examined the effects of aging on network connectivity between task regions recruited during a working memory (WM) manipulation task, and the rest of the brain. We found an age-related increase in the more global network integration in older adults, and an association between this integration and working memory capacity in older adults. The findings are generally consistent with the compensatory interpretation of these effects.

scholarly journals Eye movements reveal a similar positivity effect in Chinese and UK older adults

2020 ◽  
Vol 73 (11) ◽  
pp. 1921-1929
Author(s):  
Jingxin Wang ◽  
Fang Xie ◽  
Liyuan He ◽  
Katie L Meadmore ◽  
Kevin B Paterson ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Older Adults ◽  
Factor Analysis ◽  
Eye Movements ◽  
Bayes Factor ◽  
Attention And Memory ◽  
Emotional Information ◽  
Younger Adults ◽  
Positivity Effect ◽  
Age Related ◽  
Related Increase

The “positivity effect” (PE) reflects an age-related increase in the preference for positive over negative information in attention and memory. The present experiment investigated whether Chinese and UK participants produce a similar PE. In one experiment, we presented pleasant, unpleasant, and neutral pictures simultaneously and participants decided which picture they liked or disliked on a third of trials, respectively. We recorded participants’ eye movements during this task and compared time looking at, and memory for, pictures. The results suggest that older but not younger adults from both China and UK participant groups showed a preference to focus on and remember pleasant pictures, providing evidence of a PE in both cultures. Bayes Factor analysis supported these observations. These findings are consistent with the view that older people preferentially focus on positive emotional information, and that this effect is observed cross-culturally.

scholarly journals Neural distinctiveness declines with age in auditory cortex and is associated with auditory GABA levels

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Poortata Lalwani ◽  
Holly Gagnon ◽  
Kaitlin Cassady ◽  
Molly Simmonite ◽  
Scott Peltier ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Older Adults ◽  
Visual Cortex ◽  
Individual Differences ◽  
Magnetic Resonance ◽  
Auditory Cortex ◽  
Aging Brain ◽  
Resonance Spectroscopy ◽  
Younger Adults ◽  
Activation Patterns ◽  
Age Related

AbstractNeural activation patterns in the ventral visual cortex in response to different categories of visual stimuli (e.g., faces vs. houses) are less selective, or distinctive, in older adults than in younger adults, a phenomenon known as age-related neural dedifferentiation. Previous work in animals suggests that age-related reductions of the inhibitory neurotransmitter, gamma aminobutyric acid (GABA), may play a role in this age-related decline in neural distinctiveness. In this study, we investigated whether neural dedifferentiation extends to auditory cortex and whether individual differences in GABA are associated with individual differences in neural distinctiveness in humans. 20 healthy young adults (ages 18-29) and 23 healthy older adults (over 65) completed a functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) scan, during which neural activity was estimated while they listened to foreign speech and music. GABA levels in the auditory, ventrovisual and sensorimotor cortex were estimated in the same individuals in a separate magnetic resonance spectroscopy (MRS) scan. Relative to the younger adults, the older adults exhibited both (1) less distinct activation patterns for music vs. speech stimuli and (2) lower GABA levels in the auditory cortex. Also, individual differences in auditory GABA levels (but not ventrovisual or sensorimotor GABA levels) predicted individual differences in neural distinctiveness in the auditory cortex in the older adults. These results demonstrate that age-related neural dedifferentiation extends to the auditory cortex and suggest that declining GABA levels may play a role in neural dedifferentiation in older adults.Significance StatementPrior work has revealed age-related neural dedifferentiation in the visual cortex. GABA levels also decline with age in several parts of the human cortex. Here, we report that these two age-related changes are linked; neural dedifferentiation is associated with lower GABA levels in older adults. We also show that age-related neural dedifferentiation extends to auditory cortex, suggesting that it may be a general feature of the aging brain. These findings provide novel insights into the neurochemical basis of age-related neural dedifferentiation in humans and also offer a potential new avenue for investigating age-related declines in central auditory processing.

scholarly journals Age-related differences during visual search: the role of contextual expectations and top-down control mechanisms.

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Miguel Borges ◽  
Eunice G. Fernandes ◽  
Moreno I. Coco
Keyword(s):  
Older Adults ◽  
Visual Search ◽  
Cognitive Control ◽  
Contextual Information ◽  
Target Object ◽  
Control Mechanisms ◽  
Experimental Conditions ◽  
Attentional Load ◽  
Age Related ◽  
Inconsistent Objects

In visual search, the cognitive system controls the contextual information available by inhibiting irrelevant information to successfully orient attention towards the search target. As cognitive control is reduced in older adults they often experience more difficulties in such tasks. In two eye-tracking experiments, we investigated the interplay between contextual expectations and cognitive control during visual search in naturalistic scenes. A younger and an older group of participants had to find a target object varying in consistency with the search scene (e.g., a basket of bread vs a clothes iron in a restaurant scene) after being primed with contextual information either congruent or incongruent with it (e.g., a restaurant vs a bathroom), and administered as a scene (Experiment 1) or a word (Experiment 2, which included a scrambled word as neutral prime). Participants also completed two cognitive control tasks (Stroop and Flanker) to assess their cognitive control. Older adults had greater difficulty than younger adults with inconsistent objects, especially when primed with congruent information (Experiment 1), or a scrambled word (neutral condition, Experiment 2). Congruent expectations boost distractor objects which have to be suppressed when the semantics of the target object violates them. Neutral primes acted as low-level perceptual distractors that increased the attentional load of participants and needed to be suppressed. Higher cognitive control, especially in older participants, improved the search accuracy in these experimental conditions, but it did not mediate the eye-movement responses. These results shed new light on the links between cognitive control and visual attention in ageing.

scholarly journals Effect of Cognitive Control on Age-Related Positivity Effects in Attentional Processing – Evidence From an Event-Related Brain Potential Study

2021 ◽  
Vol 12 ◽  
Author(s):  
Haining Liu ◽  
Yanli Liu ◽  
Xianling Dong ◽  
Haihong Liu ◽  
Buxin Han
Keyword(s):  
Older Adults ◽  
Cognitive Control ◽  
Right Hemisphere ◽  
Brain Activity ◽  
Event Related Potentials ◽  
Opposite Pattern ◽  
Younger Adults ◽  
Attentional Processing ◽  
Age Related ◽  
Related Potentials

Studies investigating age-related positivity effects during facial emotion processing have yielded contradictory results. The present study aimed to elucidate the mechanisms of cognitive control during attentional processing of emotional faces among older adults. We used go/no-go detection tasks combined with event-related potentials and source localization to examine the effects of response inhibition on age-related positivity effects. Data were obtained from 23 older and 23 younger healthy participants. Behavioral results showed that the discriminability index (d') of older adults on fear trials was significantly greater than that of younger adults [t(44)=2.37, p=0.024, Cohen’s d=0.70], whereas an opposite pattern was found in happy trials [t(44)=2.56, p=0.014, Cohen’s d=0.75]. The electroencephalography results on the amplitude of the N170 at the left electrode positions showed that the fear-neutral face pairs were larger than the happy-neutral ones for the younger adults [t(22)=2.32, p=0.030, Cohen’s d=0.48]; the older group’s right hemisphere presented similar tendency, although the results were not statistically significant [t(22)=1.97, p=0.061, Cohen’s d=0.41]. Further, the brain activity of the two hemispheres in older adults showed asymmetrical decrement. Our study demonstrated that the age-related “positivity effect” was not observed owing to the depletion of available cognitive resources at the early attentional stage. Moreover, bilateral activation of the two hemispheres may be important signals of normal aging.

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