Horne Alexandra J, Chiew Kimberly S, Zhuang Jie, George Linda K, Adcock R Alison, Potter Guy G, Lad Eleonora M, Cousins Scott W, Lin Frank R, Mamo Sara K, Chen Nan-Kuei, Maciejewski Abigail J, Duong Fernandez Xuan, Whitson Heather E
Duke University School of Medicine, Durham, NC, USA.
Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, MD, USA.
J Aging Res. 2018 Dec 16;2018:4930385. doi: 10.1155/2018/4930385. eCollection 2018.
Despite increased rates of disease, disability, and social losses with aging, seniors consistently report higher levels of subjective well-being (SWB), a construct closely related to happiness, than younger adults. In this exploratory study, we utilized an available dataset to investigate how aspects of health commonly deteriorating with age, including sensory (i.e., vision and hearing) and cognitive status, relate to variability in self-described contributors to happiness. Community-dwelling seniors ( = 114) responded to a single-item prompt: "name things that make people happy." 1731 responses were categorized into 13 domains of SWB via structured content analysis. Sensory health and cognition were assessed by Snellen visual acuity, pure-tone audiometry, and in-person administration of the Brief Test of Adult Cognition by Telephone (BTACT) battery. A subset of eligible participants ( = 57) underwent functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) to assess resting state functional connectivity (FC) within a previously described dopaminergic network associated with reward processing. SWB response patterns were relatively stable across gender, sensory status, and cognitive performance with few exceptions. For example, hearing-impaired participants listed fewer determinants of SWB (13.59 vs. 17.16; < 0.001) and were less likely to name things in the "special events" category. Participants with a higher proportion of responses in the "accomplishments" domain (e.g., winning, getting good grades) demonstrated increased FC between the ventral tegmental area and nucleus accumbens, regions implicated in reward and motivated behavior. While the framework for determinants of happiness among seniors was largely stable across the factors assessed here, our findings suggest that subtle changes in this construct may be linked to sensory loss. The possibility that perceptions about determinants of happiness might relate to differences in intrinsic connectivity within reward-related brain networks also warrants further investigation.
尽管随着年龄增长，疾病、残疾和社会损失的发生率有所上升，但老年人始终报告称，他们的主观幸福感（SWB，这一概念与幸福密切相关）水平高于年轻人。在这项探索性研究中，我们利用一个现有数据集来调查随着年龄增长而普遍恶化的健康方面，包括感官（即视力和听力）和认知状况，与自我描述的幸福贡献因素的变异性之间的关系。居住在社区的老年人（n = 114）对一个单项提示做出了回应：“说出让人快乐的事情”。通过结构化内容分析，将1731条回应归类到SWB的13个领域。通过斯内伦视力表、纯音听力测定法以及亲自进行电话成人认知简短测试（BTACT）电池组来评估感官健康和认知。一部分符合条件的参与者（n = 57）接受了功能磁共振成像（fMRI），以评估与奖励处理相关的先前描述的多巴胺能网络内的静息态功能连接（FC）。除了少数例外情况，SWB的回应模式在性别、感官状况和认知表现方面相对稳定。例如，听力受损的参与者列出的SWB决定因素较少（13.59对17.16；p < 0.001），并且不太可能将“特殊事件”类别中的事情列为决定因素。在“成就”领域（例如获胜、取得好成绩）中回应比例较高的参与者，其腹侧被盖区和伏隔核之间的FC增加，这两个区域与奖励和动机行为有关。虽然老年人幸福决定因素的框架在此处评估的因素中基本稳定，但我们的研究结果表明，这一概念的细微变化可能与感官丧失有关。关于幸福决定因素的认知可能与奖励相关脑网络内内在连接差异有关的可能性，也值得进一步研究。
