scholarly journals Effects of age and sex on neurophysiological substrates of empathy: a cross-sectional EEG study

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Samuel Guay ◽  
Josiane Héroux ◽  
Sven Joubert ◽  
Béatrice P.-De Koninck ◽  
Virginie L. Blanchette ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Young Adults ◽  
Facial Expressions ◽  
Healthy Aging ◽  
Objective Measure ◽  
Mu Rhythm ◽  
Emotional Facial Expressions ◽  
Age Related ◽  
Continuous Eeg ◽  
Empathy Quotient ◽  
Age And Sex

Although empathy is an indispensable competence to social adaptation throughout the lifespan, it has been mostly studied with subjective, questionnaire-based measures in the context of healthy aging. Electroencephalography (EEG) provides an objective measure to investigate underlying neurophysiological processes related to empathy through mu rhythm. The current study used empathy-related mu rhythm during the observation of emotional facial expressions (EFE) in addition to the Empathy Quotient questionnaire in order to explore age-related changes of empathy across sexes. A total of 65 participants, including 33 young adults and 32 seniors, took part in this study. They were instructed to observe as well as to try experiencing emotional facial expressions (joy, fear, neutral) depicted on short video clips during which continuous EEG was recorded. They also completed the Empathy Quotient (EQ) questionnaire. Young adults reacted more strongly to emotional EFEs. Seniors perceived themselves as less empathic and exhibited an equivalent neurophysiological response to emotional and neutral stimuli. A significant sex effect in favour of females was found on mu rhythm modulation. Mu rhythm appears to be an age and sex sensitive neurophysiological marker linked to empathy and could therefore serve as an objective measure of empathy.

scholarly journals The effects of sleep deprivation on the processing of emotional facial expressions in young adults with and without ADHD

2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Ami Cohen ◽  
Kfir Asraf ◽  
Ivgeny Saveliev ◽  
Orrie Dan ◽  
Iris Haimov
Keyword(s):  
Young Adults ◽  
Sleep Deprivation ◽  
Facial Expressions ◽  
Interactive Effect ◽  
Control Group ◽  
Experimental Session ◽  
Poor Sleep ◽  
Adhd Group ◽  
Emotional Facial Expressions ◽  
Oddball Task

AbstractThe ability to recognize emotions from facial expressions is essential to the development of complex social cognition behaviors, and impairments in this ability are associated with poor social competence. This study aimed to examine the effects of sleep deprivation on the processing of emotional facial expressions and nonfacial stimuli in young adults with and without attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). Thirty-five men (mean age 25.4) with (n = 19) and without (n = 16) ADHD participated in the study. During the five days preceding the experimental session, the participants were required to sleep at least seven hours per night (23:00/24:00–7:00/9:00) and their sleep was monitored via actigraphy. On the morning of the experimental session, the participants completed a 4-stimulus visual oddball task combining facial and nonfacial stimuli, and repeated it after 25 h of sustained wakefulness. At baseline, both study groups had poorer performance in response to facial rather than non-facial target stimuli on all indices of the oddball task, with no differences between the groups. Following sleep deprivation, rates of omission errors, commission errors and reaction time variability increased significantly in the ADHD group but not in the control group. Time and target type (face/non-face) did not have an interactive effect on any indices of the oddball task. Young adults with ADHD are more sensitive to the negative effects of sleep deprivation on attentional processes, including those related to the processing of emotional facial expressions. As poor sleep and excessive daytime sleepiness are common in individuals with ADHD, it is feasible that poor sleep quality and quantity play an important role in cognitive functioning deficits, including the processing of emotional facial expressions that are associated with ADHD.

scholarly journals Age-related Neural Changes during Memory Conjunction Errors

2010 ◽  
Vol 22 (7) ◽  
pp. 1348-1361 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kelly S. Giovanello ◽  
Elizabeth A. Kensinger ◽  
Alana T. Wong ◽  
Daniel L. Schacter
Keyword(s):  
Older Adults ◽  
Young Adults ◽  
Healthy Aging ◽  
Parahippocampal Gyrus ◽  
Neural Basis ◽  
Laboratory Procedure ◽  
Conjunction Errors ◽  
Age Related ◽  
Memory Distortions ◽  
Memory Conjunction Errors

Human behavioral studies demonstrate that healthy aging is often accompanied by increases in memory distortions or errors. Here we used event-related fMRI to examine the neural basis of age-related memory distortions. We used the memory conjunction error paradigm, a laboratory procedure known to elicit high levels of memory errors. For older adults, right parahippocampal gyrus showed significantly greater activity during false than during accurate retrieval. We observed no regions in which activity was greater during false than during accurate retrieval for young adults. Young adults, however, showed significantly greater activity than old adults during accurate retrieval in right hippocampus. By contrast, older adults demonstrated greater activity than young adults during accurate retrieval in right inferior and middle prefrontal cortex. These data are consistent with the notion that age-related memory conjunction errors arise from dysfunction of hippocampal system mechanisms, rather than impairments in frontally mediated monitoring processes.

scholarly journals Visual attention during seeing for speaking in healthy aging

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Gwendolyn L Rehrig ◽  
Taylor R. Hayes ◽  
John M. Henderson ◽  
Fernanda Ferreira
Keyword(s):  
Older Adults ◽  
Young Adults ◽  
Visual Attention ◽  
Cognitive Processing ◽  
Healthy Aging ◽  
World Knowledge ◽  
Extensive Experience ◽  
Age Related ◽  
Logistic Mixed Effects Model ◽  
Age Related Cognitive Decline

As we age, we accumulate a wealth of information, but cognitive processing becomes slower and less efficient. There is mixed evidence on whether world knowledge compensates for age-related cognitive decline (Umanath & Marsh, 2014). We investigated whether older adults are more likely to fixate more meaningful scene locations than are young adults. Young (N=30) and older adults (N=30, aged 66-82) described scenes while eye movements and descriptions were recorded. We used a logistic mixed-effects model to determine whether fixated scene locations differed in meaning, salience, and center distance from locations that were not fixated, and whether those properties differed for locations young and older adults fixated. Meaning predicted fixated locations well overall, though the locations older adults fixated were less meaningful than those that young adults fixated. These results suggest that older adults’ visual attention is less sensitive to meaning than young adults, despite extensive experience with scenes.

scholarly journals Schizotypy is associated with difficulties detecting emotional facial expressions

2021 ◽  
Vol 8 (11) ◽  
Author(s):  
Shota Uono ◽  
Wataru Sato ◽  
Reiko Sawada ◽  
Sayaka Kawakami ◽  
Sayaka Yoshimura ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Facial Expression ◽  
Facial Expressions ◽  
Facial Expression Recognition ◽  
Recognition Task ◽  
Clinical Population ◽  
Expression Recognition ◽  
Emotional Facial Expressions ◽  
Visual Change ◽  
Recognition Of Facial Expressions ◽  
Age And Sex

People with schizophrenia or subclinical schizotypal traits exhibit impaired recognition of facial expressions. However, it remains unclear whether the detection of emotional facial expressions is impaired in people with schizophrenia or high levels of schizotypy. The present study examined whether the detection of emotional facial expressions would be associated with schizotypy in a non-clinical population after controlling for the effects of IQ, age, and sex. Participants were asked to respond to whether all faces were the same as quickly and as accurately as possible following the presentation of angry or happy faces or their anti-expressions among crowds of neutral faces. Anti-expressions contain a degree of visual change that is equivalent to that of normal emotional facial expressions relative to neutral facial expressions and are recognized as neutral expressions. Normal expressions of anger and happiness were detected more rapidly and accurately than their anti-expressions. Additionally, the degree of overall schizotypy was negatively correlated with the effectiveness of detecting normal expressions versus anti-expressions. An emotion–recognition task revealed that the degree of positive schizotypy was negatively correlated with the accuracy of facial expression recognition. These results suggest that people with high levels of schizotypy experienced difficulties detecting and recognizing emotional facial expressions.

scholarly journals Cataract prevalence following a nationwide policy to shorten wait time for cataract surgery

2021 ◽  
Vol 10 (2) ◽  
pp. 86-94
Author(s):  
Ge Yang ◽  
Sherif El-Defrawy ◽  
Graham E Trope ◽  
Yvonne M Buys ◽  
Sophia Y Liu ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Secondary School ◽  
Cataract Surgery ◽  
Healthy Aging ◽  
Wait Time ◽  
Canadian Community Health Survey ◽  
Cross Sectional Study ◽  
Cross Sectional ◽  
Age Related ◽  
School Graduation ◽  
Age And Sex

Background: Cataract is an age-related eye disease. Visual impairment from cataract can be restored by cataract surgery. In 2004 the Canadian federal government invested in a multibillion dollar wait time strategy to shorten the wait time for cataract surgery, a government-insured health service in all Canadian jurisdictions. We assessed if this nationwide policy reduced the number of Canadians waiting for cataract surgery as more individuals with cataract were free of cataract following the rapidly conducted surgery. Methods: In this cross-sectional study we analyzed data from randomly selected individuals aged greater than or equal to 45 years responding to the Canadian Community Health Survey (CCHS) in 2000/2001, 2003, 2005, and the CCHS Healthy Aging in 2008/2009. Information on cataract was obtained from self-reported questionnaire. The age- and sex-standardized prevalence of cataract was calculated for comparisons. Results: Cataract was reported by 0.93 million Canadians in 2000/2001, 0.99 million in 2003, 1.10 million in 2005, and 1.34 million in 2008/2009. This corresponds to an age- and sex-standardized prevalence of 8.9% in 2000/2001, 9.0% in 2003, 9.5% in 2005, and 10.2% (P <0.05) in 2008/2009. The increase in age- and sex-standardized prevalence was greater in individuals without secondary school graduation than those with secondary school graduation or higher (4.3% versus 1.3%, P < 0.05) and was seen in all Canadian provinces. The largest increase was documented in a province (Saskatchewan, from 9.8% in 2000/2001 to 12.6% in 2008/2009, P < 0.05) with the longest median wait times for cataract surgery (118 days in 2008) and the lowest number of ophthalmologists per 100,000 population (1.96 versus 3.35 national average). Conclusions: The age- and sex-standardized prevalence of cataract increased 4-5 years after the multibillion-dollar wait time strategy was launched in 2004. A lower threshold to diagnose cataract may be one potential reason for this finding. Further research is needed to understand the true reasons for the increase. How to cite this article: Yang G, El-Defrawy S, Trope GE, Buys YM, Liu SY, Jin YP. Cataract prevalence following a nationwide policy to shorten wait time for cataract surgery. Med Hypothesis Discov Innov Ophthalmol. 2021 Summer; 10(2): 86-94. https://doi.org/10.51329/mehdiophthal1426

scholarly journals Age-related differences in conversational discourse abilities A comparative study

2019 ◽  
Vol 13 (1) ◽  
pp. 53-71
Author(s):  
Natalie Pereira ◽  
Ana Paula Bresolin Gonçalves ◽  
Mariana Goulart ◽  
Marina Amarante Tarrasconi ◽  
Renata Kochhann ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Older Adults ◽  
Young Adults ◽  
Cognitive Skills ◽  
Healthy Aging ◽  
Screening Tools ◽  
Discourse Comprehension ◽  
Chi Square ◽  
Conversational Discourse ◽  
Communicative Behaviors ◽  
Age Related

ABSTRACT. Conversational discourse (CD) is among the most complex tasks in everyday life and relies on multiple cognitive domains (communicative and executive abilities). Alterations in discourse comprehension and production are often present in pathological aging. However, there is still a need to identify changes in healthy aging. Objective: This study aimed to compare young and older adults for the frequency of impaired communicative behaviors on a CD task. Performance was scored according to the Complementary Procedure of Conversational Discourse Analysis (CPCDA), developed based on the CD task from the Montreal Communication Evaluation Battery. Methods: A total of 95 participants (54 young-adults and 41 older adults) were evaluated. The frequency of communicative behaviors was compared between groups using MANCOVA and Chi-square tests. Results: Young adults showed fewer impairments in expression, pragmatics, cohesion, coherence, comprehension and emotional prosody. Older adults showed higher levels of verbal initiative and had fewer word finding difficulties. Communicative behaviors associated with planning and self-monitoring (e.g. repetition of information and syllabic false starts) appear to be common in the speech of healthy individuals in general. Conclusion: Studies which evaluate both discursive and cognitive skills are required to identify age-related changes. This would allow for the development of screening tools for CD assessment and preventive programs.

scholarly journals Older adults detect happy facial expressions less rapidly

2020 ◽  
Vol 7 (3) ◽  
pp. 191715
Author(s):  
Akie Saito ◽  
Wataru Sato ◽  
Sakiko Yoshikawa
Keyword(s):  
Older Adults ◽  
Young Adults ◽  
Visual Search ◽  
Facial Expressions ◽  
Experimental Psychology ◽  
Search Task ◽  
Visual Search Task ◽  
Age Groups ◽  
Emotional Facial Expressions ◽  
Visual Properties

Previous experimental psychology studies based on visual search paradigms have reported that young adults detect emotional facial expressions more rapidly than emotionally neutral expressions. However, it remains unclear whether this holds in older adults. We investigated this by comparing the abilities of young and older adults to detect emotional and neutral facial expressions while controlling the visual properties of faces presented (termed anti-expressions) in a visual search task. Both age groups detected normal angry faces more rapidly than anti-angry faces. However, whereas young adults detected normal happy faces more rapidly than anti-happy faces, older adults did not. This suggests that older adults may not be easy to detect or focusing attention towards smiling faces appearing peripherally.

scholarly journals Deciphering the Relationship between Objective and Subjective Aspects of Recollection in Healthy Aging

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Adrien Folville ◽  
Arnaud D'Argembeau ◽  
Christine Bastin
Keyword(s):  
Older Adults ◽  
Young Adults ◽  
Healthy Aging ◽  
Subjective Experience ◽  
Lower Amount ◽  
Objective Measures ◽  
Aggregated Data ◽  
Mixed Effects Modeling ◽  
Age Related ◽  
The Relationship

Although healthy aging has been related to a decline in recollection as indexed by objective measures, the subjective experience of recollection seems to remain stable. To date, however, these age-related differences have only been examined using aggregated data across trials. In the current study, we investigated the relationship between subjective and objective measures of recollection on a trial-by-trial basis to determine whether the magnitude of this relationship was similar in young and older adults. Young and older participants were presented with a series of pictures that were associated with descriptive labels at encoding. At retrieval, they were cued with the labels and were asked to rate the vividness of their memory for the associated picture and to recall as many details of the picture as they could. On average, older adults assigned higher vividness ratings but recalled lower amount of specific episodic details than young adults. Mixed-effects modeling revealed that, across trials, the relationship between subjective (vividness) and objective (number of recalled details) recollection was stronger in young than in older participants. These findings provide evidence that older adults not only retrieve fewer episodic details but also spontaneously rely on these details to a lesser extent than young adults for judging the subjective quality of their memories.

Age Effects on Visuo-Haptic Length Discrimination: Evidence for Optimal Integration of Senses in Senior Adults

2018 ◽  
Vol 31 (3-4) ◽  
pp. 273-300 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jutta Billino ◽  
Knut Drewing
Keyword(s):  
Young Adults ◽  
Multisensory Integration ◽  
Healthy Aging ◽  
Multisensory Processing ◽  
Age Effects ◽  
Weighted Averaging ◽  
Senior Adults ◽  
Cognitive Changes ◽  
Integration Model ◽  
Age Related

Demographic changes in most developed societies have fostered research on functional aging. While cognitive changes have been characterized elaborately, understanding of perceptual aging lacks behind. We investigated age effects on the mechanisms of how multiple sources of sensory information are merged into a common percept. We studied visuo-haptic integration in a length discrimination task. A total of 24 young (20–25 years) and 27 senior (69–77 years) adults compared standard stimuli to appropriate sets of comparison stimuli. Standard stimuli were explored under visual, haptic, or visuo-haptic conditions. The task procedure allowed introducing an intersensory conflict by anamorphic lenses. Comparison stimuli were exclusively explored haptically. We derived psychometric functions for each condition, determining points of subjective equality and discrimination thresholds. We notably evaluated visuo-haptic perception by different models of multisensory processing, i.e., the Maximum-Likelihood-Estimate model of optimal cue integration, a suboptimal integration model, and a cue switching model. Our results support robust visuo-haptic integration across the adult lifespan. We found suboptimal weighted averaging of sensory sources in young adults, however, senior adults exploited differential sensory reliabilities more efficiently to optimize thresholds. Indeed, evaluation of the MLE model indicates that young adults underweighted visual cues by more than 30%; in contrast, visual weights of senior adults deviated only by about 3% from predictions. We suggest that close to optimal multisensory integration might contribute to successful compensation for age-related sensory losses and provides a critical resource. Differentiation between multisensory integration during healthy aging and age-related pathological challenges on the sensory systems awaits further exploration.

The Effect of Sleep Deprivation on Recognition of Ambiguous Emotional Facial Expressions in Individuals With ADHD

2018 ◽  
Vol 24 (4) ◽  
pp. 565-575 ◽  
Author(s):  
Orrie Dan ◽  
Iris Haimov ◽  
Kfir Asraf ◽  
Kesem Nachum ◽  
Ami Cohen
Keyword(s):  
Young Adults ◽  
Sleep Deprivation ◽  
Facial Expressions ◽  
Emotional Expressions ◽  
Controlled Environment ◽  
Adhd Group ◽  
Emotional Facial Expressions ◽  
Facial Stimuli ◽  
Intensity Threshold ◽  
Face Stimuli

Objective: The present study sought to investigate whether young adults with ADHD have more difficulty recognizing emotional facial expressions compared with young adults without ADHD, and whether such a difference worsens following sleep deprivation. Method: Thirty-one young men ( M = 25.6) with ( n = 15) or without ( n = 16) a diagnosis of ADHD were included in this study. The participants were instructed to sleep 7 hr or more each night for one week, and their sleep quality was monitored via actigraph. Subsequently, the participants were kept awake in a controlled environment for 30 hr. The participants completed a visual emotional morph task twice—at the beginning and at the end of this period. The task included presentation of interpolated face stimuli ranging from neutral facial expressions to fully emotional facial expressions of anger, sadness, or happiness, allowing for assessment of the intensity threshold for recognizing these facial emotional expressions. Results: Actigraphy data demonstrated that while the nightly sleep duration of the participants with ADHD was similar to that of participants without ADHD, their sleep efficiency was poorer. At the onset of the experiment, there were no differences in recognition thresholds between the participants with ADHD and those without ADHD. Following sleep deprivation, however, the ADHD group required clearer facial expressions to recognize the presence of angry, sad, and, to a lesser extent, happy faces. Conclusion: Among young adults with ADHD, sleep deprivation may hinder the processing of emotional facial stimuli.

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