Age-Related Differences In Emotional Processing: Event-Related fMRI Evidence

F. Dolcos1,2, LaBar, K. 1, Cabeza, R.1

1. Center for Cognitive Neuroscience, Duke University., Durham, NC, USA
2. Centre for Neuroscience, University of Alberta, Edmonton, AB, Canada

The ability to evaluate the emotional content of stimuli and the memory-enhancing effect of emotion are preserved in normal aging. However, it is not clear whether these processes depend on the same neural mechanisms as in young adults. We investigated this issue using event-related fMRI. Young and elderly participants were scanned while rating the pleasantness of emotional and neutral pictures. Recall of the pictures was tested after scanning and was better for emotional than for neutral pictures in both groups. To identify brain areas involved in emotional evaluation, we compared brain activity for emotional and neutral pictures (emotion effect). To reveal brain regions involved in successful encoding, we compared brain activity for subsequently remembered and forgotten pictures (subsequent memory effect). The emotion effect analyses revealed that, compared to neutral pictures, emotional pictures elicited greater activity in the medial prefrontal, occipital, parietal, and diencephalic regions in both groups. In adition, there was an age-related decrease in the amygdala and an age-related increase in the anterior cingulate. As for the subsequent memory effect, compared to forgotten pictures, remembered pictures were associated with greater activity in prefrontal and parietal cortices in both groups. Also, there was an age-related decrease in the medial-temporal lobe and an age-related increase in the superior prefrontal cortex. These results suggest that, despite preserved similarities, there are age-related differences in the neural correlates underlying the processing of emotional information. Supported by: Duke University & University of Alberta