Published in: Brain and Cognition, Volume 122, April 2018, 26-33 Abstract “One of the most important structural changes that occur in the brain during the course of life relates to the corpus callosum, the largest neural pathway that connects the two cerebral hemispheres. It has been shown that the corpus callosum, and in particular its anterior sections, endures a process of degeneration in ageing. Hence, a primary question is whether such structural changes in the brain of older adults have functional consequences on inter-hemispheric communication. In particular, whether the atrophy of the corpus callosum in ageing may lead to a higher… Read More
Older adults’ neural activation in the reward circuit is sensitive to face trustworthiness
Published in: Cognitive, Affective, & Behavioral Neuroscience, Volume 18, Issue 1, 21-34 Abstract “We examined older adult (OA) and younger adult (YA) neural sensitivity to face trustworthiness in reward circuit regions, previously found to respond to trustworthiness in YA. Interactions of face trustworthiness with age revealed effects exclusive to OA in the amygdala and caudate, and an effect that was not moderated by age in the dorsal anterior cingulate cortex (dACC). OA, but not YA, showed a nonlinear amygdala response to face trustworthiness, with significantly stronger activation response to high than to medium trustworthy faces, and no difference between low and… Read More
How do we get there? Effects of cognitive aging on route memory
Published in: Memory & Cognition, Volume 46, Issue 2, 274-284 Abstract “Research into the effects of cognitive aging on route navigation usually focuses on differences in learning performance. In contrast, we investigated age-related differences in route knowledge after successful route learning. One young and two groups of older adults categorized using different cut-off scores on the Montreal Cognitive Assessment (MoCA), were trained until they could correctly recall short routes. During the test phase, they were asked to recall the sequence in which landmarks were encountered (Landmark Sequence Task), the sequence of turns (Direction Sequence Task), the direction of turn at each… Read More
Semanticized autobiographical memory and the default – executive coupling hypothesis of aging
Published in: Neuropsychologia, Volume 110, February 2018, 37-43 Abstract “As we age, the architecture of cognition undergoes a fundamental transition. Fluid intellectual abilities decline while crystalized abilities remain stable or increase. This shift has a profound impact across myriad cognitive and functional domains, yet the neural mechanisms remain under-specified. We have proposed that greater connectivity between the default network and executive control regions in lateral prefrontal cortex may underlie this shift, as older adults increasingly rely upon accumulated knowledge to support goal-directed behavior. Here we provide direct evidence for this mechanism within the domain of autobiographical memory. In a large sample of healthy adult participants (n… Read More
Aging enhances cognitive biases to friends but not the self
Published in: Psychonomic Bulletin & Review, Volume 24, Issue 6, December 2017, 2021-2030 Abstract “We measured changes in self and friend biases in perceptual matching in young and older participants. Participants learned associations between neutral geometric shapes and three personal labels (You, Friend, or Stranger), representing themselves, their named best friend, and a stranger not corresponding to anyone they knew. They then responded whether the shapes and labels matched or mismatched. In addition, participants reported the perceived personal distance between themselves, their best friend, and a stranger. Relative to young participants, older adults showed an increased bias toward matching their friends over strangers,… Read More
Finding the good in the bad: age and event experience relate to the focus on positive aspects of a negative event
Published in: Cognition and Emotion, Volume 32, Issue 2, 414-421 Abstract “All lives contain negative events, but how we think about these events differs across individuals; negative events often include positive details that can be remembered alongside the negative, and the ability to maintain both representations may be beneficial. In a survey examining emotional responses to the 2013 Boston Marathon bombings, the current study investigated how this ability shifts as a function of age and individual differences in initial experience of the event. Specifically, this study examined how emotional importance (i.e. self-reported emotional arousal and personal significance), involvement (i.e. self and… Read More
Aging is associated with a prefrontal lateral-medial shift during picture-induced negative affect
Published in: Social Cognitive and Affective Neuroscience, Volume 13, Issue 2, 156-163 Abstract “The capacity to adaptively respond to negative emotion is in part dependent upon lateral areas of the prefrontal cortex (PFC). Lateral PFC areas are particularly susceptible to age-related atrophy, which affects executive function (EF). We used structural and functional magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) to test the hypothesis that older age is associated with greater medial PFC engagement during processing of negative information, and that this engagement is dependent upon the integrity of grey matter structure in lateral PFC as well as EF. Participants (n = 64, 38–79 years) viewed negative and… Read More