Brain responses to emotional images related to cognitive ability in older adults.

Abstract

Older adults have been shown to exhibit a positivity effect in processing of emotional stimuli, seemingly focusing more on positive than negative information. Whether this reflects purposeful changes or an unintended side-effect of declining cognitive abilities is unclear. For the present study older adults displaying a wide range of cognitive abilities completed measures of attention, visual and verbal memory, executive functioning, and processing speed, as well as a socioemotional measure of time perspective. Regression analyses examined the ability of these variables to predict neural responsivity to select emotional stimuli as measured with the late positive potential (LPP), an event-related brain potential (ERP). Stronger cognitive functioning was associated with higher LPP amplitude in response to negative images (i.e., greater processing). This does not support a voluntary avoidance of negative information processing in older adults for this particular measure of attentional allocation. A model is proposed to reconcile this finding with the extant literature that has demonstrated positivity effects in measures of later, controlled attentional allocation.

The Affective Neuroscience of Aging

“…Behavioral studies provide further support for the notion that older adults engage prefrontal resources in order to help increase positivity and/or diminish negativity of attention and memory by showing that higher executive function is associated with higher positivity among older adults but not younger adults (Isaacowitz et al, 2009b, Knight et al, 2007, Mather and Knight, 2005, Petrican et al, 2008, Sasse et al, 2014, Simón et al, 2013, but see Foster et al, 2013). …”

“…Socioemotional selectivity theory posits that everyone has some sense of time left in life and that as time is perceived as more limited, people prioritize emotional goals more (Carstensen et al, 2006), which in turn should lead to more focus on regulating emotion when confronted with emotional stimuli (Kryla-Lighthall and Mather, 2009). One prediction from this perspective that has not received support is that one’s perceived time left in life should predict the positivity effect (Demeyer and De Raedt, 2013, Foster et al, 2013). However, individual differences in depression and optimism likely also influence perceived time left in life and should be associated with a lower positive-to-negative ratio in attention and memory.…”

The effects of varying contextual demands on age-related positive gaze preferences.

“…In the latter case, older adults may focus more on positive and less on negative information in the later phases of emotion processing because emotion regulation strategies may take some time to yield the desired regulatory effect (Isaacowitz, Allard, Murphy, & Schlangel, 2009). Thus, our findings seem to extend beyond those of Foster et al (2013), suggesting that the path used by older adults to achieve a positivity effect in emotion processing may also depend on context.…”

“…On the other hand, older adults with worse cognitive abilities exhibited reduced neural reactivity to negative images, indicating that they had difficulties in processing negative information in an early phase of emotion processing. On the basis of these findings, Foster et al (2013) argued that there may be different pathways for individuals with relatively poorer cognitive abilities compared to individuals with better cognitive abilities. Older adults with more limited cognitive abilities may utilize a positive gaze preference as a compensatory strategy (for example, Labouvie-Vief, Grühn, & Studer, 2010).…”

“…Depending on their attentional-control resources, the path used by older adults to achieve a positivity effect in emotion processing might differ (Foster et al, 2013; Isaacowitz et al, 2009). As we did not measure the time course of positive gaze preferences in the present study, we were unable to further investigate this potential way of further differentiating the path.…”