Skip to main content Accessibility help

We use cookies to distinguish you from other users and to provide you with a better experience on our websites. Close this message to accept cookies or find out how to manage your cookie settings.

Close cookie message
×
Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-xbtfd Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-11T10:21:47.416Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

Chapter 28 - Emotion and Aging

Linking Neural Mechanisms to Psychological Theory

from Section VII - Individual Differences in Emotion

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  05 February 2013

By
Peggy L. St. Jacques ,
Amy Winecoff  and
Roberto Cabeza
Edited by
Jorge Armony  and
Patrik Vuilleumier
Jorge Armony
Affiliation:
McGill University, Montréal
Patrik Vuilleumier
Affiliation:
Université de Genève
Get access

Summary

This chapter reviews the main findings of functional neuroimaging studies and links them to theories regarding aging effects on emotional processing. It summarizes evidence for two cognitive neuroscience accounts of preserved emotional processing in old age: anatomical preservation and functional compensation. The chapter reviews behavioral and functional neuroimaging studies on the effects of aging in the domains of emotional perception, emotional memory, emotional decision making, and emotion regulation. Despite different paradigms and stimuli, these studies show a consistent pattern whereby aging is associated with an increase in frontal activity that is sometimes coupled with decreases in amygdalar responses to negative stimuli. This pattern is called the frontoamygdalar age-related differences in emotion (FADE). Finally, the chapter considers how functional neuroimaging findings fit with psychological theories of age-related emotional changes: the socioemotional selectivity theory (SST), dynamic integration theory (DIT), learning and practice theory, and the byproduct of biological decline theory.

Keywords

fMRI environmentMontreal Imaging StressoxytocinTrier Social Stress Testtrier social stresssocial approachscanstress
Type
Chapter
Information
The Cambridge Handbook of Human Affective Neuroscience , pp. 635 - 662
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2013

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Save book to Kindle

To save this book to your Kindle, first ensure coreplatform@cambridge.org is added to your Approved Personal Document E-mail List under your Personal Document Settings on the Manage Your Content and Devices page of your Amazon account. Then enter the ‘name’ part of your Kindle email address below. Find out more about saving to your Kindle.

Note you can select to save to either the @free.kindle.com or @kindle.com variations. ‘@free.kindle.com’ emails are free but can only be saved to your device when it is connected to wi-fi. ‘@kindle.com’ emails can be delivered even when you are not connected to wi-fi, but note that service fees apply.

Find out more about the Kindle Personal Document Service.

Available formats
×

Save book to Dropbox

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Dropbox.

Available formats
×

Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

Available formats
×