Department of Psychiatry, Psychotherapy and Psychosomatics, Medical Faculty, RWTH Aachen University, 52074 Aachen, Germany, JARA - Translational Brain Medicine, 52074 Aachen, Germany, and Department of Psychology, Stanford University, Stanford, CA 94305-2130, USADepartment of Psychiatry, Psychotherapy and Psychosomatics, Medical Faculty, RWTH Aachen University, 52074 Aachen, Germany, JARA - Translational Brain Medicine, 52074 Aachen, Germany, and Department of Psychology, Stanford University, Stanford, CA 94305-2130, USA
Department of Psychiatry, Psychotherapy and Psychosomatics, Medical Faculty, RWTH Aachen University, 52074 Aachen, Germany, JARA - Translational Brain Medicine, 52074 Aachen, Germany, and Department of Psychology, Stanford University, Stanford, CA 94305-2130, USADepartment of Psychiatry, Psychotherapy and Psychosomatics, Medical Faculty, RWTH Aachen University, 52074 Aachen, Germany, JARA - Translational Brain Medicine, 52074 Aachen, Germany, and Department of Psychology, Stanford University, Stanford, CA 94305-2130, USA.
Soc Cogn Affect Neurosci. 2014 Jun;9(6):825-31. doi: 10.1093/scan/nst047. Epub 2013 Apr 1.
Recent studies have reported inconsistent results regarding the loss of reward sensitivity in the aging brain. Although such an age effect might be due to a decline of physiological processes, it may also be a consequence of age-related changes in motivational preference for different rewards. Here, we examined whether the age effects on neural correlates of reward anticipation are modulated by the type of expected reward. Functional magnetic resonance images were acquired in 24 older (60-78 years) and 24 young participants (20-28 years) while they performed an incentive delay task offering monetary or social rewards. Anticipation of either reward type recruited brain structures associated with reward, including the nucleus accumbens (NAcc). Region of interest analysis revealed an interaction effect of reward type and age group in the right NAcc: enhanced activation to cues of social reward was detected in the older subsample while enhanced activation to cues of monetary reward was detected in the younger subsample. Our results suggest that neural sensitivity to reward-predicting cues does not generally decrease with age. Rather, neural responses in the NAcc appear to be modulated by the type of reward, presumably reflecting age-related changes in motivational value attributed to different types of reward.
最近的研究报告称，衰老大脑中奖励敏感性的丧失存在不一致的结果。虽然这种年龄效应可能是由于生理过程的下降，但也可能是不同奖励的动机偏好的年龄相关变化的结果。在这里，我们研究了对奖励预期的神经相关性的年龄效应是否受到预期奖励类型的调节。我们在 24 名老年人（60-78 岁）和 24 名年轻人（20-28 岁）中采集了功能磁共振图像，他们在执行提供金钱或社会奖励的激励延迟任务时。对任何一种奖励类型的预期都会激活与奖励相关的大脑结构，包括伏隔核（NAcc）。感兴趣区域分析显示，奖励类型和年龄组在右侧 NAcc 中存在交互作用：在老年亚组中检测到对社会奖励线索的增强激活，而在年轻亚组中检测到对金钱奖励线索的增强激活。我们的研究结果表明，神经对奖励预测线索的敏感性并不随着年龄的增长而普遍下降。相反，NAcc 中的神经反应似乎受到奖励类型的调节，可能反映了不同类型奖励的动机价值的年龄相关变化。
