Williams Leanne M, Brown Kerri J, Palmer Donna, Liddell Belinda J, Kemp Andrew H, Olivieri Gloria, Peduto Anthony, Gordon Evian
Brain Dynamics Centre, Westmead Millenium Institute and Western Clinical School, University of Sydney, Westmead Hospital, Westmead, Sydney, New South Wales, 2145, Australia.
J Neurosci. 2006 Jun 14;26(24):6422-30. doi: 10.1523/JNEUROSCI.0022-06.2006.
Contrary to the pervasive negative stereotypes of human aging, emotional functions may improve with advancing age. However, the brain mechanisms underlying changes in emotional function over age remain unknown. Here, we demonstrate that emotional stability improves linearly over seven decades (12-79 years) of the human lifespan. We used both functional magnetic resonance imaging and event-related potential recording to examine the neural basis of this improvement. With these multimodal techniques, we show that better stability is predicted by a shift toward greater medial prefrontal control over negative emotional input associated with increased activity later in the processing sequence (beyond 200 ms after stimulus) and less control over positive input, related to a decrease in early activity (within 150 ms). This shift was independent from gray matter loss, indexed by structural magnetic resonance data. We propose an integrative model in which accumulated life experience and the motivation for meaning over acquisition in older age contribute to plasticity of medial prefrontal systems, achieving a greater selective control over emotional functions.
与普遍存在的关于人类衰老的负面刻板印象相反，情绪功能可能会随着年龄的增长而改善。然而，随着年龄增长情绪功能变化背后的大脑机制仍然未知。在此，我们证明情绪稳定性在人类寿命的七十年（12 - 79岁）间呈线性改善。我们使用功能磁共振成像和事件相关电位记录来研究这种改善的神经基础。通过这些多模态技术，我们表明更好的稳定性是由内侧前额叶对负面情绪输入的控制增强所预测的，这与处理序列后期（刺激后200毫秒之后）活动增加相关，而对正面输入的控制减少，这与早期活动（150毫秒内）减少有关。这种转变与由结构磁共振数据所索引的灰质损失无关。我们提出了一个综合模型，其中积累的生活经验以及老年时期对意义而非获取的动机促成了内侧前额叶系统的可塑性，从而实现对情绪功能更强的选择性控制。
