García-Rodríguez B, Fusari A, Ellgring H
Universidad Nacional de Educacion a Distancia. UNED. Facultad de Psicologia, Madrid, Espana.
Rev Neurol. 2008;46(10):609-17.
Many studies have shown that in both normal and pathological ageing there is a deterioration of emotional processing, especially as regards negative emotions such as fear.
To review the most important neurological and psychological research carried out to study emotional processing and relate it to the cognitive deterioration that characterises normal ageing and neurodegenerative diseases.
Here, we discuss the two main lines of research, i.e. the socio emotional approach, which claims that as we get older we gain a better understanding of our emotions because of a deeper knowledge of social relationships, interpersonal enrichment and the importance of goals that are linked to our emotional life; and, on the other hand, the neuropsychological approach, which studies the areas of brain activation involved in processing emotional facial expressions and the underlying mental processes.
Both approaches underline the deficient processing of negative emotions that comes with age, while processing of positive emotions remains relatively intact. Recent research suggests that deficits in emotional processing depend on the cognitive deterioration that characterises ageing. When the task requires resources from working memory, which is one of the first systems to deteriorate in ageing, the result is compromised emotional processing. Yet, when the task requires the use of implicit memory, no age-related alterations are observed in emotional processing.
许多研究表明，在正常衰老和病理性衰老过程中，情绪加工都会出现衰退，尤其是在处理恐惧等负面情绪方面。
回顾为研究情绪加工而开展的最重要的神经学和心理学研究，并将其与正常衰老和神经退行性疾病所特有的认知衰退联系起来。
在此，我们讨论两条主要的研究路线，即社会情绪方法，该方法认为随着年龄的增长，由于对社会关系有更深入的了解、人际丰富以及与我们的情感生活相关的目标的重要性，我们对自己的情绪有了更好的理解；另一方面是神经心理学方法，该方法研究处理情绪性面部表情所涉及的大脑激活区域以及潜在的心理过程。
两种方法都强调随着年龄增长负面情绪加工存在缺陷，而正面情绪加工相对保持完好。最近的研究表明，情绪加工缺陷取决于衰老所特有的认知衰退。当任务需要工作记忆的资源时，而工作记忆是衰老过程中最早衰退的系统之一，结果就是情绪加工受到损害。然而，当任务需要使用内隐记忆时，在情绪加工中未观察到与年龄相关的变化。
