(Supplement).
The aim of this supplement is to bring trainee candidate Amber Heemskerk, who is from an underrepresented background in our institution and in the U.S., to work under the parent grant (R01AG057764). This project offers an ideal context for Amber?s research and career development, given her future career goals to complete a PhD and pursue an academic career as an independently funded, productive researcher on basic and applied processes related to financial elder abuse. Amber will have the opportunity to acquire comprehensive conceptual knowledge about aging, gain invaluable hands-on experience in research design and study logistics, build her skills in advanced statistical analysis of physiological and neuroimaging data, and enhance her presentation and academic writing skills. She will work closely with her mentoring team that includes balanced expertise in social and affective experimental aging and decision-making neuroscience (Dr. Ebner), neuroscience of aging and advanced neuroimaging analysis (Dr. Spreng), clinical neuropsychology in aging (Dr. Turner), and diverse approaches to behavioral statistical and neuroimaging data analysis (Dr. Horta). Amber plans to significantly contribute to all three of the original parent grant aims. On her own initiative, she has developed a highly innovative ecologically valid paradigm on voice phishing (vishing). A funded supplement will allow Amber to oversee data collection and data analysis related to this novel vishing paradigm to determine age-related differences in susceptibility to vishing. This research will directly contribute to Aim 1, which is to determine financial deception risk across the adult life span to confirm that age is associated with greater susceptibility to financial deception. The supplement will also allow Amber to take over responsibility in Aim 2, which aims at uncovering the extent to which age-related dampening in neurophysiological reactivity and functional brain changes contribute to increased susceptibility in aging. Towards this aim, she will analyze the physiological and functional MRI data pertaining to a novel paradigm on dynamic deceptive cues (LIE task). This paradigm is directly related to the scope of the parent grant on deception risk in aging but was not originally implemented in the grant. Funding through the supplement will allow Amber to get fully trained in physiological and neuroimaging data analysis to test the hypothesis that risk profiles in aging are characterized by dampened physiological and brain response to deception cues. Findings from her analyses and the new vishing methodology put in place by her as part of the supplement will directly inform age-targeted real-life decision-supportive tools that we aim to develop in Aim 3 towards the long-term goal of financial risk reduction in older individuals.
(Supplement) The aim of this supplement is to bring trainee candidate Amber Heemskerk, who is from an underrepresented (Black female) background in the biomedical, behavioral, clinical, and social sciences and the neurosciences in our institution and in the U.S., to work under the parent grant (R01AG057764). This project offers an ideal context for Amber?s research and career development, given her future career goals to complete a PhD and pursue an academic career as an independently funded, productive researcher on basic and applied processes related to financial elder abuse. Working towards all three parent grant aims, Amber will have the opportunity to acquire comprehensive conceptual knowledge about aging, gain invaluable hands-on experience in research design and study logistics, build her skills in advanced statistical analysis of physiological and neuroimaging data, and enhance her presentation and academic writing skills.
