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A Method for Investigating Age-related Differences in the Functional Connectivity of Cognitive Control Networks Associated with Dimensional Change Card Sort Performance

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Age-related neural differences in affiliation and isolation.

Janelle N Beadle¹, Carolyn Yoon, Angela H Gutchess

¹Department of Psychology, Neuroscience Program, Brandeis University, Waltham, MA, USA. janelle-beadle@uiowa.edu

Cognitive, Affective & Behavioral Neuroscience

|February 29, 2012

Summary

Older adults show distinct brain activity patterns when perceiving social affiliation and isolation compared to younger adults. This suggests age-related differences in how social information is processed and recalled.

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Area of Science:

Neuroscience
Social Psychology
Gerontology

Background:

Previous aging research has concentrated on specific aspects of social perception, like theory of mind and self-referencing.
Limited understanding exists regarding age-related variations in the neural underpinnings of perceiving social affiliation versus isolation.

Purpose of the Study:

To investigate age-related similarities and differences in the neural basis of perceiving social affiliation and isolation.
To explore how the brain processes images depicting social interaction (affiliation) versus solitary individuals (isolation) across different age groups.

Main Methods:

Functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) was used to measure brain activity (BOLD signals).
Participants (younger and older adults) viewed images of affiliation, isolation, and nonsocial scenes.
Participants made pleasantness judgments for each image.

Main Results:

Both age groups showed similar activation in theory of mind and self-referencing regions (e.g., temporal pole, medial prefrontal cortex) for affiliation and isolation.
Older adults exhibited greater temporal pole activation than younger adults when viewing isolation versus affiliation images.
Older adults showed increased precuneus recruitment for affiliation versus isolation images compared to younger adults.

Conclusions:

Age-related differences in neural activation for social perception suggest that older adults may rely more on isolation-relevant memory retrieval for theory of mind.
The enhanced precuneus activation in older adults for affiliation images indicates a potential extension of the positivity bias to social information involving connection.