Age-related differences in neurobiological systems supporting emotion

PROJECT SUMMARY Our global population is aging faster than ever, promising challenges for healthcare and community wellness. Affective processes are known to support health and wellbeing across the lifespan. Consequently, a better understanding of these processes has profound implications for the prevention and treatment of health disorders (e.g., geriatric depression, cardiovascular disease, dementia) and for policies supporting adults into later life. Older adults reliably report greater positive emotions, less aroused negative emotions, and greater emotion regulation efficacy compared to younger adults. These changes have primarily been attributed to age-related shifts in cognitive processes like attention, memory, motivation, control, and self-regulation. However, older adults also demonstrate less robust autonomic responding during emotion, lesser sensitivity to bodily sensations (interoception), and maladaptive gut-based decision-making. Collectively, these findings point to a novel hypothesis: the Physiological Hypothesis of Emotional Aging (PHEA). PHEA hypothesizes that age-related shifts in functional activation and connectivity within the allostatic interoceptive brain network (AIN) produce changes in emotional experience via concurrent changes in interoception and peripheral reactivity. The proposed project evaluates this hypothesis across three scientific aims leveraging data from sponsor Lindquist’s on-going cohort study of adults (n = 120, 18-80 years old). Participants in this study complete an in-lab session, one week of experience sampling, and a functional brain scan yielding measures of physiological reactivity, interoceptive ability, and emotional reactivity both in-lab and in-daily life. The proposed project is accompanied by 6 specific training objectives that will help the applicant to build new expertise in the neurobiology of affective aging, cutting- edge experimental methodologies (e.g., in-scanner acquisition of autonomic physiology, ultrahigh resolution functional brain scanning), and data analytic techniques (e.g., graph theory). The scientific aims and training objectives outlined in this proposal will better our understanding of basic mechanisms underlying healthy and disordered emotional aging; will help scientists, practitioners and policymakers address the health needs of our aging population; and will support the applicant’s transition into a productive and independent research scientist.