Aging and Emotion Regulation: An Examination of the Role of Resting-State Amygdala Connectivity
Year: 2017
Type: article
Study design: Observational Study
Abstract: Older adults tend to report experiencing greater emotional well-being than young adults.This shift in emotional well-being appears to be attributable to shifts in motivation to regulate emotions.Although several studies have reported age differences in activity of the prefrontal cortex (PFC) and amygdala during the process of emotion regulation, it is unclear how functional changes in the brain at rest relate to age-related shifts in emotion regulation.The current study examined how age differences in resting state connectivity between the amygdala and the PFC relate to age differences in emotion dysregulation and emotion regulation strategy use.Twenty older adults and 20 young adults completed an fMRI scan and self-report measures of emotion dysregulation and emotion regulation strategy use.Resting state connectivity analyses were conducted utilizing the bilateral amygdalae as seeds.We found that young adults exhibited greater connectivity between the left amygdala and the left dorsal lateral PFC (dlPFC) than older adults.Further, resting state amygdala-dlPFC connectivity was positively associated with emotion dysregulation and use of experiential suppression.Our findings provide some evidence that age-related shifts in emotion regulation may be related to intrinsic shifts in the functional architecture of the brain.Future studies should employ longitudinal designs and behavioral measures of emotion regulation to improve our understanding of the mechanisms and directionality of the relationship between age differences in resting state activity and emotion regulation.
Author: Patrick Whitmoyer
Institution: The Ohio State University
Language: English
Subfield: Cognitive Neuroscience
Field: Neuroscience
Domain: Life Sciences
Open Access status: green
OpenAlex ID: W2620378551