Joseph A. Mikels - US grants

DESCRIPTION (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.

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): Every day we make important health decisions ranging from what we choose to eat to how physically active we choose to be. Such decisions have a dramatic impact on broad health outcomes, especially as we age. For instance, in light of evidence documenting decreased physical activity with advanced age, how can the health promotion decisions of older adults be influenced? Although traditional conceptualizations of decision making have focused heavily on the cognitive, deliberative aspects of decision making, recent perspectives have emphasized the role of emotion in decision making, which may become more prominent in later life. Although older adults experience declines in deliberative psychological processes critical to decision making, they show stability in emotional processes and also show a preference for positive over negative material. These divergent age-related trajectories may then impact how older adults make health-related decisions. In the health domain, one specific way in which behaviors such as exercise are impacted is through message framing. In particular, loss-framed messages that emphasize the negative consequences of not engaging in a behavior are particularly persuasive for behaviors involving risk (e.g., detecting an illness). In contrast, gain-framed messages that emphasize the benefits of engaging in a behavior are particularly effective for promoting preventative behaviors (e.g., exercise). The proposed research will examine the underlying affective and cognitive mechanisms of message framing as applied to exercise in older and younger adults as well as how such messages may influence actual physical activity. Specifically, this research will: (1) explicate how emotional ad cognitive processes underlie age differences in the processing of framed health-related messages, and (2) examine how message framing impacts the exercise engagement, adherence, and maintenance of older adults. These aims will be met first through two laboratory experiments that examine the effects of gain- versus loss-framed messages on the affective reactions, attitudes, and behavioral intentions of older and younger adults. In addition, three intervention studies will examine how such message framing impacts the behavior of older adults with respect to an evidence-based fitness program with documented success in improving health and wellbeing, Fit & Strong!. By pursuing these aims, this project promises: to increase our understanding of the role of cognitive and emotional processes in decision making across the adult life span; to better inform prescriptive recommendations for how to best frame certain health messages; and to illustrate the effectiveness of message framing on enhancing the physical activity, health, and cognitive vitality of older adults through a health intervention

Project Summary Stress is a common part of daily life, and our ability to regulate our emotions in stressful situations heavily determines our well-being and health. Importantly, emotion regulatory abilities generally improve with age, and relative to earlier parts of the life span, later life is characterized by shifts toward positivity: everyday emotional experience is on the whole filled with less negativity, and the processing of emotional information shifts toward the positive. Given older adults? general improvement in well- being and emotional health, it may be assumed that older adults are better than younger adults at responding to and regulating stress. Although age-related emotional strengths in later life can improve our responses to some types of stressors (e.g., interpersonal conflict), age-related vulnerabilities may compromise the ability to regulate emotions in other contexts. For instance, declines in deliberative cognitive processing, increased sensitivity to threatening evaluations of cognitive performance, and stress-induced physiological dysregulation may all impact the ability of older adults to regulate stress. This project aims to understand situations under which older adults might non-optimally react to and ineffectively regulate stress, and how to utilize their strengths to mitigate emotional dysregulation under stress. Specifically, this research will: (1) explore adult age differences in emotional and physiological reactivity to and regulation of interpersonal versus cognitively evaluative stressors, (2) demonstrate whether older adults capitalize more on positivity when regulating stress responses than do younger adults, and (3) examine the potential protective effect of emotion regulation in buffering the influence of genetic risk on cognitive functioning. These aims will be met through two laboratory experiments that examine the effects of interpersonal conflict versus cognitively evaluative stressors on emotion regulation and physiological reactivity and recovery (e.g., cardiac output, heart rate, blood pressure) in older and younger adults. In addition, the proposed research will examine how positive contexts (i.e., exposure to positive stimuli) may influence emotional and physiological responsivity and regulation during stressful situations. Given the importance of positive emotions in the context of stress, leveraging age-related positivity to enhance regulatory behaviors has significant implications for healthy aging. Finally, the project will explore whether emotion regulation moderates the effects of deleterious genetic risk factors on cognitive functioning. By pursuing these aims, this project promises to: better inform our understanding of how the strengths and vulnerabilities of advanced age impact our ability to regulate our emotions in different stressful situations, provide insight into how drawing on the strengths of later life may assuage the detrimental effects of stress, and highlight the utility of emotion regulation in protecting against age-related cognitive decline.