Ruffman Ted, Henry Julie D, Livingstone Vicki, Phillips Louise H
Department of Psychology, University of Otago, Box 56, Dunedin 9054, New Zealand.
Neurosci Biobehav Rev. 2008;32(4):863-81. doi: 10.1016/j.neubiorev.2008.01.001. Epub 2008 Jan 11.
This meta-analysis of 28 data sets (N=705 older adults, N=962 younger adults) examined age differences in emotion recognition across four modalities: faces, voices, bodies/contexts, and matching of faces to voices. The results indicate that older adults have increased difficulty recognising at least some of the basic emotions (anger, sadness, fear, disgust, surprise, happiness) in each modality, with some emotions (anger and sadness) and some modalities (face-voice matching) creating particular difficulties. The predominant pattern across all emotions and modalities was of age-related decline with the exception that there was a trend for older adults to be better than young adults at recognising disgusted facial expressions. These age-related changes are examined in the context of three theoretical perspectives-positivity effects, general cognitive decline, and more specific neuropsychological change in the social brain. We argue that the pattern of age-related change observed is most consistent with a neuropsychological model of adult aging stemming from changes in frontal and temporal volume, and/or changes in neurotransmitters.
这项对28个数据集（705名老年人，962名年轻人）的荟萃分析研究了在四种模态下情绪识别的年龄差异：面部、声音、身体/情境以及面部与声音匹配。结果表明，老年人在每种模态中识别至少一些基本情绪（愤怒、悲伤、恐惧、厌恶、惊讶、快乐）的难度增加，某些情绪（愤怒和悲伤）以及某些模态（面部-声音匹配）会造成特别的困难。除了老年人在识别厌恶面部表情方面比年轻人更好这一趋势外，所有情绪和模态中的主要模式是与年龄相关的下降。这些与年龄相关的变化在三个理论视角——积极效应、一般认知衰退以及社会大脑中更具体的神经心理学变化——的背景下进行了研究。我们认为，观察到的与年龄相关的变化模式最符合源自额叶和颞叶体积变化和/或神经递质变化的成人衰老神经心理学模型。
