Leclerc Christina M, Kensinger Elizabeth A
Department of Psychology, Boston College, Chestnut Hill, Massachusetts 02467, USA.
Cogn Affect Behav Neurosci. 2008 Jun;8(2):153-64. doi: 10.3758/cabn.8.2.153.
Research has suggested that aging results in a "positivity effect," with young adults dwelling on negative information, and older adults attending to positive information. In order to understand age-related changes in emotional processing underlying this effect, the present fMRI study compared neural activity in young and older adults as they viewed positive, negative, and neutral images. Results indicated a striking age-related reversal in the valence of information eliciting activity within the ventromedial prefrontal cortex (VMPFC). Negative in comparison with positive images activated the VMPFC more for young adults, whereas positive in comparison with negative images activated the VMPFC more for the older adults. The VMPFC is a region associated with the processing of emotional information, and more specifically, with emotion generation and emotion regulation. Therefore, the present results suggest that age-related changes in these processes implemented by the VMPFC contribute to older adults' "positivity effect."
研究表明，衰老会产生一种“积极效应”，即年轻人关注负面信息，而老年人关注正面信息。为了了解这种效应背后情绪加工中与年龄相关的变化，本功能磁共振成像（fMRI）研究比较了年轻人和老年人在观看正面、负面和中性图像时的神经活动。结果表明，在腹内侧前额叶皮层（VMPFC）中，引发活动的信息效价出现了与年龄相关的显著反转。与正面图像相比，负面图像在年轻人中更能激活VMPFC，而与负面图像相比，正面图像在老年人中更能激活VMPFC。VMPFC是一个与情绪信息加工相关的区域，更具体地说，与情绪产生和情绪调节有关。因此，目前的结果表明，VMPFC所执行的这些过程中与年龄相关的变化促成了老年人的“积极效应”。
