(provided by candidate): As humans age, their cognitive and emotional lives diverge: important aspects of cognitive functioning (viz., working memory, processing speed) steadily decline whereas emotional functioning appears to improve. Throughout the history of psychological inquiry into aging, a greater emphasis has been placed on investigating the cognitive deficits of older adults than emotional enhancement. Especially lacking is empirical research focused on the interaction of these trajectories. This particular project will examine the neural substrates of changes in the emotional lives of older adults by examining how the neural processing of emotional facial expressions differs in the aging brain from the young brain (Experiment 1). In addition, this application will investigate how these neural changes interact with attentional processes on a behavioral level as well as a neural level (Experiments 2 & 3). Understanding age-related changes in the neural processing of emotional information and how these changes interact with cognitive processing is critical to psychological aging research as well as interventions. This application will not only make significant contributions to the fields of psychological aging and cognitive-affective neuroscience, but also has the potential to impact research in clinical gerontology with respect to cognitive-affective interventions and training programs.
| Mikels, Joseph A; Lockenhoff, Corinna E; Maglio, Sam J et al. (2010) Following your heart or your head: focusing on emotions versus information differentially influences the decisions of younger and older adults. J Exp Psychol Appl 16:87-95 |
| Sullivan, Sarah J; Mikels, Joseph A; Carstensen, Laura L (2010) You never lose the ages you've been: affective perspective taking in older adults. Psychol Aging 25:229-34 |
| Mikels, Joseph A; Reuter-Lorenz, Patricia A; Beyer, Jonathan A et al. (2008) Emotion and working memory: evidence for domain-specific processes for affective maintenance. Emotion 8:256-66 |
| Mikels, Joseph A; Larkin, Gregory R; Reuter-Lorenz, Patricia A et al. (2005) Divergent trajectories in the aging mind: changes in working memory for affective versus visual information with age. Psychol Aging 20:542-53 |
