Amygdala functional network during recognition of own-age vs. other-age faces in younger and older adults

Ziaei, Maryam; Persson, Jonas; Bonyadi, Mohammad Reza; Reutens, David C.; Ebner, Natalie C.

doi:10.1016/j.neuropsychologia.2019.03.003

Cited by 16 publications

(21 citation statements)

References 66 publications

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“…Positive empathy can engage areas related to the processing of positive emotions such as the default mode network/ medial frontoparietal network as well as the reward system (e.g., the ventral striatum). Our observation that regions associated with the default mode network are engaged in response to positive emotions during affective empathy is also in accordance with previous studies (Ziaei et al 2019 ; for a review see Morelli et al 2015 ). Based on our results, we propose that there might be a distinction in the brain networks recruited by older adults in response to positive vs. negative emotions, as a function of task context and task effort required; a hypothesis that needs to be followed up in future studies.…”

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 93%

“…Furthermore, we expected that the age groups would differ in their recruitment of brain networks in response to negative and positive stimuli, with reduced activity of the salience network for negative ( Hypothesis 2a ) but enhanced or equal activity of the default mode network for positive ( Hypothesis 2b ) stimuli among older (relative to younger) participants. These predictions were based on evidence that positive and negative empathy selectively activate regions associated with positive (e.g., ventromedial prefrontal cortex) and negative (e.g., anterior insula, dorsal anterior cingulate cortex) affect, respectively (Morelli et al 2015 ; Ziaei et al 2019 ). We have previously demonstrated that positive affect was associated with activation in regions within the default mode network in older adults (Ziaei, Ebner et al 2017a , b ).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Age-related differences in negative cognitive empathy but similarities in positive affective empathy

et al. 2021

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Empathy, among other social-cognitive processes, changes across adulthood. More specifically, cognitive components of empathy (understanding another’s perspective) appear to decline with age, while findings for affective empathy (sharing another’s emotional state) are rather mixed. Structural and functional correlates underlying cognitive and affective empathy in aging and the extent to which valence affects empathic response in brain and behavior are not well understood yet. To fill these research gaps, younger and older adults completed a modified version of the Multifaceted Empathy Test, which measures both cognitive and affective empathy as well as empathic responding to both positive and negative stimuli (i.e., positive vs. negative empathy). Adopting a multimodal imaging approach and applying multivariate analysis, the study found that for cognitive empathy to negative emotions, regions of the salience network including the anterior insula and anterior cingulate were more involved in older than younger adults. For affective empathy to positive emotions, in contrast, younger and older adults recruited a similar brain network including main nodes of the default mode network. Additionally, increased structural microstructure (fractional anisotropy values) of the posterior cingulum bundle (right henisphere) was related to activation of default mode regions during affective empathy for positive emotions in both age groups. These findings provide novel insights into the functional networks subserving cognitive and affective empathy in younger and older adults and highlight the importance of considering valence in empathic response in aging research. Further this study, for the first time, underscores the role of the posterior cingulum bundle in higher-order social-cognitive processes such as empathy, specifically for positive emotions, in aging.

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Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 93%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Age-related differences in negative cognitive empathy but similarities in positive affective empathy

et al. 2021

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“…Although sparse, positive empathy can engage areas related to the positive emotions such as the default mode network as well as the reward system such as the ventral striatum. Thus, the engagement of regions associated with the default mode network for positive emotions during the affective empathy in this experiment is also in line with previous studies (Ziaei et al, 2019; for a review see Morelli et al, 2015). Based on our results, we propose that there might be a distinction in the brain networks recruited by the positive vs. negative emotions, based on the task context and effort required for the task, among the elderly population which needs to be considered in future studies.…”

Section: The Role Of Valence On Affective Empathysupporting

confidence: 91%

“…We further expected that the age groups would differ in their recruitment of brain networks in response to negative and positive stimuli, with reduced activity of the salience network for negative ( Hypothesis 2a ) and enhanced or equal activity of the default mode network for positive stimuli ( Hypothesis 2b ) among older participants. These predictions were based on evidence that positive and negative empathy selectively activate regions associated with positive (e.g., ventromedial prefrontal cortex) and negative (e.g., anterior insula, dorsal anterior cingulate cortex) affect, respectively (Morelli et al, 2015; Ziaei et al, 2019). We have previously demonstrated that positive affect was associated with activation in regions within the default mode network in older adults (Ziaei et al, 2017).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Age-related differences in negative cognitive empathy but similarities in positive affective empathy

Ziaei

Oestreich

Reutens

et al. 2020

Preprint

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Empathy, among other social-cognitive processes, changes across adulthood. More specifically, cognitive components of empathy (understanding another's perspective) appear to decline with age, while findings for affective empathy (sharing another's emotional states) are rather mixed. Not well understood yet are the neural correlates underlying cognitive and affective empathy and the extent to which valence modulates these components of empathy in aging. To fill these research gaps, young and older participants completed a modified version of the Multifaceted Empathy Test, which measures both cognitive and affective empathy, while brain images were acquired in the MRI scanner. Multivariate analysis showed that regions of the salience network, including anterior insula and anterior cingulate, were more involved in cognitive empathy to negative emotions, in older than in younger participants. For affective empathy to positive emotions, in contrast, young and older participants recruited a similar brain network including the main nodes of the default mode network. These results provide novel insights into the neural networks subserving cognitive and affective empathy in young and older adults and highlight a modulatory role of valence on empathy in aging. Our findings highlight the importance of valence for the study of higher-order social-cognitive processes such as empathy in aging.

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“…Interestingly, neurophysiological differences in the 'social brain' are frequently taken to explain particular difficulties with face perception and other social tasks in healthy aging (Ruffman et al, 2008;Fischer et al, 2010;Ziaei et al, 2019). The 'social brain' is a postulated network involving regions such as the orbitofrontal cortex, cingulate cortex and amygdala, and is implicated in the 'accurate perception of the dispositions and intentions of other individuals ' (p. 28;Brothers, 1990).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Impaired sensitivity to spatial configurations in healthy aging

Chard¹,

Press²,

Cook³

2021

Preprint

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Studies have found age-related deficits in face processing, including identity and emotion recognition. It is unclear what underlies such atypicalities, and why older adults are unaffected in other apparently similar perceptual tasks. The present study examined the possibility that particular deficits in configural processing impair the perception of faces in healthy aging. Across two signal detection experiments, we required a group of healthy older adults and matched younger adults to detect changes in images of faces that could differ either at the local, featural level, or in configuration of these features. In support of our hypothesis, older adults were particularly impaired in detecting configural changes, relative to detecting changes in features. The impairments were found for both upright and inverted faces and were similar in a task with images of inanimate objects (houses). Drift diffusion modelling suggested that this decline related to reduced evidence accumulation rather than a tendency to make configural judgments based on less evidence. These findings indicate that domain-general problems processing configural information contribute to the difficulties with face processing in healthy aging, and may in principle also contribute to a range of higher-level social difficulties.

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Amygdala functional network during recognition of own-age vs. other-age faces in younger and older adults

Cited by 16 publications

References 66 publications

Age-related differences in negative cognitive empathy but similarities in positive affective empathy

Age-related differences in negative cognitive empathy but similarities in positive affective empathy

Age-related differences in negative cognitive empathy but similarities in positive affective empathy

Impaired sensitivity to spatial configurations in healthy aging

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