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| Research Shows Aging Brain Brings Benefit Of Mature Perspective |
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| SciMed - Neuroscience | |||
| TS-Si News Service | |||
| Monday, 23 June 2008 18:00 | |||
Edmunton, Alberta, Canada. Does emotional wisdom come with age? Researchers identified
 brain patterns that help healthy people over the age of 60 regulate and control emotion better than younger counterparts. Two brain regions increased activity when participants viewed standardized pictures of emotionally challenging situations. Dr. Florin Dolcos, University of Alberta (U of A), conducted the study in collaboration with researchers from Duke University. Dolcos is a member of the Alberta Cognitive Neuroscience Group. The U of A group brings together researchers from the U of A to explore how the brain works in human thought, including issues like perception, attention, learning, memory, language, decision-making, emotion and development.
Effects of aging on functional connectivity of the
amygdala during negative evaluation: A network analysis of fMRI data. Peggy St. Jacques, Florin Dolcos, Roberto Cabeza. Neurobiolology of Aging ePub 2 May 2008. doi: 10.1016 / j.neurobiolaging.2008.03.012. PII: S0197-4580(08)00105-X. The study, published in Neurobiology of Aging, was performed under the co-ordination of Dr. Roberto Cabeza and in collaboration with Ms. Peggy St. Jacques, both of Duke University. Dr. Dolcos received his training in brain imaging research at Duke.
 "Previous studies have provided evidence that healthy older individuals have a positivity bias – they can actually manage how much attention they give to negative situations so they're less upset by them," said Dolcos. "We didn't understand how the brain worked to give seniors this sense of perspective until now."
Dr. Dolcos is an assistant professor of psychiatry and neuroscience in the U of A Faculty of Medicine & Dentistry. During the study, younger and older participants were asked to rate the emotional content of standardized images as positive, neutral or negative, while their brain activity was monitored with a functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) machine. The fMRI device uses a large magnet to take pictures inside the brain.
The older participants rated the images as less negative than the younger participants. The fMRI scans helped researchers observe this reaction in the senior participants. The scans showed increased interactions between the amygdala, a brain region involved in emotion detection, and the anterior cingulate cortex, a brain region involved in emotion control.
According to Dr. Dolcos, "These findings indicate that emotional control improves with aging, and that it's the increased interaction between these two brain regions that allows healthy seniors to control their emotional response so that they are less affected by upsetting situations."
This research may have clinical implications. "If we can better understand how the brain works to create a positivity bias in older people, then we can apply this knowledge to better understand and treat mental health issues with a negativity bias, such as depression and anxiety disorders, in which patients have difficulty coping with emotionally challenging situations," Dolcos said.
 The TS-Si News Service is a collaborative effort by TS-Si.org editors, contributors, and corresponding institutions. Sources can include the cited individuals and organizations, as well as TS-Si.org staff contributions. Articles and news reports do not necessarily convey official positions of TS-Si, its partners, or affiliates. We welcome your comments. Use the form below to leave a public comment or send private correspondence via the TS-Si Contact Page. We will not divulge any personal details or place you on a mailing list without your permission.TS-Si is dedicated to the acceptance, medical treatment, and legal protection of individuals correcting the misalignment of their brains and their anatomical sex, while supporting their transition into society as hormonally reconstituted and surgically corrected citizens.
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| Last Updated on Monday, 23 June 2008 10:52 |
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