The Neural Mechanisms Underlying the Aging-related Enhancement of Positive Affects: Electrophysiological Evidences

Overview

Journal Front Aging Neurosci

Specialty Geriatrics

Date 2015 Aug 25

PMID 26300770

Citations 10

Authors

Xianxin Meng

Jiemin Yang

A Yan Cai

Xin Sheng Ding

Wenwen Liu

Hong Li

Jia Jin Yuan

Affiliations

Soon will be listed here.

Abstract

Background: Previous studies reported that old adults, relative to young adults, showed improvement of emotional stability and increased experiences of positive affects.

Methods: In order to better understand the neural underpinnings behind the aging-related enhancement of positive affects, it is necessary to investigate whether old and young adults differ in the threshold of eliciting positive or negative emotional reactions. However, no studies have examined emotional reaction differences between old and young adults by manipulating the intensity of emotional stimuli to date. To clarify this issue, the present study examined the impact of aging on the brain's susceptibility to affective pictures of varying emotional intensities. We recorded event-related potentials (ERP) for highly negative (HN), mildly negative (MN) and neutral pictures in the negative experimental block; and for highly positive (HP), mildly positive (MP) and neutral pictures in the positive experimental block, when young and old adults were required to count the number of pictures, irrespective of the emotionality of the pictures.

Results: Event-related potentials results showed that LPP (late positive potentials) amplitudes were larger for HN and MN stimuli compared to neutral stimuli in young adults, but not in old adults. By contrast, old adults displayed larger LPP amplitudes for HP and MP relative to neutral stimuli, while these effects were absent for young adults. In addition, old adults reported more frequent perception of positive stimuli and less frequent perception of negative stimuli than young adults. The post-experiment stimulus assessment showed more positive ratings of Neutral and MP stimuli, and reduced arousal ratings of HN stimuli in old compared to young adults.

Conclusion: These results suggest that old adults are more resistant to the impact of negative stimuli, while they are equipped with enhanced attentional bias for positive stimuli. The implications of these results to the aging-related enhancement of positive affects were discussed.

Citing Articles

The role of individual differences in emotional word recognition: Insights from a large-scale lexical decision study.

Haro J, Hinojosa J, Ferre P Behav Res Methods. 2024; 56(8):8501-8520.

PMID: 39231911 PMC: 11525433. DOI: 10.3758/s13428-024-02488-z.

More organized white matter is associated with positivity bias in older adults.

Viher P, Seitz-Holland J, Schulz M, Kensinger E, Karmacharya S, Swisher T Brain Imaging Behav. 2024; 18(3):555-565.

PMID: 38270836 PMC: 11222031. DOI: 10.1007/s11682-024-00850-5.

Aging and distractor resistance in working memory: Does emotional valence matter?.

Ding L, Zhang S, Peng M, Li X BMC Psychol. 2022; 10(1):251.

PMID: 36333780 PMC: 9636820. DOI: 10.1186/s40359-022-00953-y.

Positivity effect in aging: evidence for the primacy of positive responses to emotional ambiguity.

Petro N, Basyouni R, Neta M Neurobiol Aging. 2021; 106:232-240.

PMID: 34311432 PMC: 9255668. DOI: 10.1016/j.neurobiolaging.2021.06.015.

An ERP investigation of age differences in the negativity bias for self-relevant and non-self-relevant stimuli.

Fields E, Bowen H, Daley R, Parisi K, Gutchess A, Kensinger E Neurobiol Aging. 2021; 103:1-11.

PMID: 33773473 PMC: 8178198. DOI: 10.1016/j.neurobiolaging.2021.02.009.

References

Yuan J, Long Q, Ding N, Lou Y, Liu Y, Yang J . Suppression dampens unpleasant emotion faster than reappraisal: Neural dynamics in a Chinese sample. Sci China Life Sci. 2014; 58(5):480-91. DOI: 10.1007/s11427-014-4739-6. View

Butler P, Abeles I, Weiskopf N, Tambini A, Jalbrzikowski M, Legatt M . Sensory contributions to impaired emotion processing in schizophrenia. Schizophr Bull. 2009; 35(6):1095-107. PMC: 2762631. DOI: 10.1093/schbul/sbp109. View

Meng X, Yuan J, Li H . Automatic processing of valence differences in emotionally negative stimuli: evidence from an ERP study. Neurosci Lett. 2009; 464(3):228-32. DOI: 10.1016/j.neulet.2009.08.064. View

Holmes A, Nielsen M, Tipper S, Green S . An electrophysiological investigation into the automaticity of emotional face processing in high versus low trait anxious individuals. Cogn Affect Behav Neurosci. 2009; 9(3):323-34. DOI: 10.3758/CABN.9.3.323. View

Foti D, Hajcak G . Deconstructing reappraisal: descriptions preceding arousing pictures modulate the subsequent neural response. J Cogn Neurosci. 2008; 20(6):977-88. DOI: 10.1162/jocn.2008.20066. View

Hajcak G, Nieuwenhuis S . Reappraisal modulates the electrocortical response to unpleasant pictures. Cogn Affect Behav Neurosci. 2007; 6(4):291-7. DOI: 10.3758/cabn.6.4.291. View

Schaefer A, Fletcher K, Pottage C, Alexander K, Brown C . The effects of emotional intensity on ERP correlates of recognition memory. Neuroreport. 2009; 20(3):319-24. DOI: 10.1097/WNR.0b013e3283229b52. View

Carstensen L, Pasupathi M, Mayr U, Nesselroade J . Emotional experience in everyday life across the adult life span. J Pers Soc Psychol. 2000; 79(4):644-55. View

Rowe G, Hirsh J, Anderson A . Positive affect increases the breadth of attentional selection. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 2006; 104(1):383-8. PMC: 1765470. DOI: 10.1073/pnas.0605198104. View

10.

Allard E, Isaacowitz D . Are preferences in emotional processing affected by distraction? Examining the age-related positivity effect in visual fixation within a dual-task paradigm. Neuropsychol Dev Cogn B Aging Neuropsychol Cogn. 2008; 15(6):725-43. PMC: 2645630. DOI: 10.1080/13825580802348562. View

11.

Brassen S, Gamer M, Buchel C . Anterior cingulate activation is related to a positivity bias and emotional stability in successful aging. Biol Psychiatry. 2010; 70(2):131-7. DOI: 10.1016/j.biopsych.2010.10.013. View

12.

Yuan J, Luo Y, Yan J, Meng X, Yu F, Li H . Neural correlates of the females' susceptibility to negative emotions: an insight into gender-related prevalence of affective disturbances. Hum Brain Mapp. 2009; 30(11):3676-86. PMC: 6870863. DOI: 10.1002/hbm.20796. View

13.

Olofsson J, Nordin S, Sequeira H, Polich J . Affective picture processing: an integrative review of ERP findings. Biol Psychol. 2008; 77(3):247-65. PMC: 2443061. DOI: 10.1016/j.biopsycho.2007.11.006. View

14.

Keil A, Bradley M, Hauk O, Rockstroh B, Elbert T, Lang P . Large-scale neural correlates of affective picture processing. Psychophysiology. 2002; 39(5):641-9. DOI: 10.1017.S0048577202394162. View

15.

Sasse L, Gamer M, Buchel C, Brassen S . Selective control of attention supports the positivity effect in aging. PLoS One. 2014; 9(8):e104180. PMC: 4122404. DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0104180. View

16.

Fjell A, Westlye L, Amlien I, Espeseth T, Reinvang I, Raz N . High consistency of regional cortical thinning in aging across multiple samples. Cereb Cortex. 2009; 19(9):2001-12. PMC: 2733683. DOI: 10.1093/cercor/bhn232. View

17.

Brown C, El-Deredy W, Blanchette I . Attentional modulation of visual-evoked potentials by threat: investigating the effect of evolutionary relevance. Brain Cogn. 2010; 74(3):281-7. DOI: 10.1016/j.bandc.2010.08.008. View

18.

Mroczek D, Kolarz C . The effect of age on positive and negative affect: a developmental perspective on happiness. J Pers Soc Psychol. 1998; 75(5):1333-49. DOI: 10.1037//0022-3514.75.5.1333. View

19.

Smith N, Cacioppo J, Larsen J, Chartrand T . May I have your attention, please: electrocortical responses to positive and negative stimuli. Neuropsychologia. 2002; 41(2):171-83. DOI: 10.1016/s0028-3932(02)00147-1. View

20.

Ritchey M, Bessette-Symons B, Hayes S, Cabeza R . Emotion processing in the aging brain is modulated by semantic elaboration. Neuropsychologia. 2010; 49(4):640-50. PMC: 3042541. DOI: 10.1016/j.neuropsychologia.2010.09.009. View