Centre for Advanced Imaging, The University of Queensland, Brisbane, Australia; School of Psychology, The University of Queensland, Brisbane, Australia.
Aging Research Center, Karolinska Institute and Stockholm University, Stockholm, Sweden.
Neuropsychologia. 2019 Jun;129:10-20. doi: 10.1016/j.neuropsychologia.2019.03.003. Epub 2019 Mar 12.
Facial cues, such as a person's age, provide important information for social interactions. Processing such facial cues can be affected by observer bias. However, there is currently no consensus regarding how the brain is processing facial cues related to age, and if facial age processing changes as a function of the age of the observer (i.e., own-age bias). The primary study aim was to investigate functional networks involved in processing own-age vs. other-age faces among younger and older adults and determine how emotional expression of the face modulates own-age vs. other-age face processing. The secondary study aim was to examine the relation between higher social cognitive processes (i.e., empathy) and modulation of brain activity by facial age and emotional expression. During functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) younger and older participants were asked to recognize happy, angry, and neutral expressions in own-age and other-age faces. Functional connectivity analyses with the amygdala as seed showed that for own-age faces both age groups recruited a network of regions including the anterior cingulate and anterior insula that was involved in empathy and detection of salient information. Brain-behavior analyses furthermore showed that empathic responses in younger, but not in older, participants were positively correlated with engagement of the medial prefrontal cortex during processing of angry own-age faces. These findings identify the neurobehavioral correlates of facial age processing, and its modulation by emotion expression, and directly link facial cue processing to higher-order social cognitive functioning.
面部线索，如人的年龄，为社交互动提供了重要信息。对这些面部线索的处理可能会受到观察者偏见的影响。然而，目前还没有共识表明大脑是如何处理与年龄相关的面部线索的，以及面部年龄处理是否会随着观察者年龄的变化而变化（即自身年龄偏见）。主要研究目的是调查年轻和年长成年人在处理自身年龄和其他年龄面孔时涉及的功能网络，并确定面部表情如何调节自身年龄和其他年龄面孔的处理。次要研究目的是研究更高的社会认知过程（即同理心）与面部年龄和表情对面部活动的调节之间的关系。在功能磁共振成像（fMRI）期间，年轻和年长的参与者被要求识别自身年龄和其他年龄面孔中的快乐、愤怒和中性表情。以杏仁核为种子的功能连接分析表明，对于自身年龄的面孔，两个年龄组都招募了一个包括前扣带回和前岛叶在内的网络，该网络参与同理心和检测显著信息。脑行为分析还表明，在处理愤怒的自身年龄面孔时，年轻参与者的同理心反应与内侧前额叶皮层的参与呈正相关，但年长参与者则没有。这些发现确定了面部年龄处理及其对面部表情表达的调节的神经行为相关性，并将面部线索处理直接与更高阶的社会认知功能联系起来。
