Age-dependent gray matter correlates of perceived financial exploitation vulnerability in cognitively unimpaired older adults

Financial exploitation vulnerability in aging is a growing public health concern, yet its neural correlates remain poorly understood. Although psychosocial and cognitive factors confer risk, emerging evidence suggests that regional differences in brain structure may also contribute to vulnerability before overt cognitive impairment. In this study, 128 cognitively unimpaired older adults (ages 51 to 87 years, 76% female) completed structural magnetic resonance imaging and the Perceived Financial Vulnerability Scale, a self-report measure of financial exploitation risk. We examined age-stratified associations between perceived financial exploitation vulnerability and gray matter volume in relatively younger (n = 67) and older (n = 61) participants. Whole-brain voxel-based morphometry analyses revealed that higher perceived financial exploitation vulnerability was associated with lower gray matter volume in the right amygdala/anterior hippocampus (max t = 4.55, pFWE = 0.029) and left precuneus (max t = 5.40, pFWE = 0.031) among older participants, but not younger participants. In post hoc exploratory analyses modeling age as a continuous variable across the full sample, the age × perceived financial exploitation vulnerability interaction was significant for gray matter volume in the left precuneus and was observed at a trend level in the right amygdala/anterior hippocampus, with more negative associations at older ages. These cross-sectional findings identify regional gray matter correlates of perceived financial exploitation vulnerability that may vary across later adulthood.