Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2013;8(5):462-73.
doi: 10.1080/17470919.2013.832373. Epub 2013 Sep 2.

Valence-based age differences in medial prefrontal activity during impression formation

Brittany S Cassidy  1 , Eric D Leshikar, Joanne Y Shih, Avigael Aizenman, Angela H Gutchess
Affiliations

Valence-based age differences in medial prefrontal activity during impression formation

Brittany S Cassidy et al. Soc Neurosci. 2013.

Abstract

Reports of age-related changes to medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC) activity during socio-cognitive tasks have shown both age-equivalence and under recruitment. Emotion work illustrates selective mPFC response dependent on valence, such that negative emotional images evoke increased ventral mPFC activity for younger adults, while older adults recruit vmPFC more for positive material. By testing whether this differential age-related response toward valenced material is also present for the social task of forming impressions, we may begin to understand inconsistencies regarding when age differences are present vs. absent in the literature. Using fMRI, participants intentionally formed impressions of positive and negative face-behavior pairs in anticipation of a memory task. Extending previous findings to a social task, valence-based reversals were present in dorsal and ventral mPFC, and posterior cingulate cortex. Younger adults elicited increased activity when forming negative impressions, while older adults had more recruitment when forming positive impressions. This suggests an age-related shift toward emphasizing positive social information may be reflected in the recruitment of regions supporting forming impressions. Overall, the results indicate an age-related shift in neural response to socio-cognitive stimuli that is valence dependent rather than a general age-related reduction in activity, in part informing prior inconsistencies within the literature.

PubMed Disclaimer

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Examples of positive and negative face-behavior stimuli.
Figure 2
Figure 2
Age differences in response to forming impressions of positive and negative face-behavior pairs in mPFC and PCC are depicted on a standard brain in MNI space (uncorrected threshold of p < 0.001, 5 contiguous voxels). ROI bar graphs characterize activatio n maps, reflecting peak activation in each brain region categorized by age group and valence plotted in arbitrary units. Valence reversals in neural response across age were found in left dmPFC (A), left vmPFC (B), right vmPFC (C), and right PCC. Error bars represent standard error. *p < 0.05
See this image and copyright information in PMC

References

    1. Addis DR, Leclerc CM, Muscatell K, Kensinger EA. There are age-related changes in neural connectivity during the encoding of positive, but not negative, information. Cortex. 2010;46(4):425–433. - PMC - PubMed
    1. Ambady N, Rosenthal R. Thin slices of expressive behavior as predictors of interpersonal consequences: a meta-analysis. Psychological Bulletin. 1992;111(2):256–274.
    1. Baumeister RF, Bratslavsky E, Finkenauer C, Vohs KD. Bad is stronger than good. Review of General Psychology. 2001;5:323–370.
    1. Beadle JN, Yoon C, Gutchess AH. Age-related neural differences in affiliation and isolation. Cognitive, Affective, and Behavioral Neuroscience. 2012;12(2):269–279. - PMC - PubMed
    1. Carstensen LL, Isaacowitz DM, Charles ST. Taking time seriously: a theory of socioemotional selectivity. American Psychologist. 1999;54(3):165–181. - PubMed

Publication types

LinkOut - more resources