Social Neuroscience, Psychophysiology, and Aging

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Social Neuroscience, Psychophysiology, and Aging

• Robert W. Levenson, Ph.D.
• University of California, Berkeley
• NIA Workshop on Neuroeconomics and Aging
• March 31, 2006

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Emotion What does it look like?

• Brief, not long
• Shorter duration than moods, emotional traits,
  emotional pathologies
• Waves, not steady states
• Readily crosses internal/external boundaries
• Stimulation
• Major Impact

Emotional Response
Match to Prototype
Antecedent Event
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Emotion and Other Affective Phenomena A Matter
of Time

• Emotion
• Mood
• Emotional trait
• Emotional plot
• Emotional disorder

• Sadness
• Feeling blue
• Melancholy
• Mourning
• Depression

Longerlasting
(Based on Ekman, 1986)
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The psychophysiological approachAre emotions
organized or chaotic?
Accident
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Why Is Emotion Important in Aging?

• Emotion plays a major role in the establishment
  and maintenance of social relationships
• Friendship/Companionship
• Marriage and other intimate relationships
• Care-giving and Care-receiving
• Social ties are closely connected to health and
  well-being
• Emotion is intimately involved in critical
  psychological processes that are impacted by age
• Memory
• Learning
• Attention/Perception

• Emotional functioning may be relatively preserved
  in normal aging
• Versus physical abilities and cognitive skills)
• Skillful emotional regulation may be an important
  component of late-life wisdom
• Perspective-taking
• Reappraisal
• Moderation
• Emotional dysfunction is a prominent feature of
  many dementing disorders

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Studying Emotion and Aging in the Laboratory
Directed Facial Actions
Emotional Memories
Films
Marital Interaction
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What Happens to Emotion With Age?

• Greater emotional control (Lawton, et al., 1992)
• Same or greater well-being (Stacey Gatz, 1991)
• Greater emotional understanding (Labouvie-Vief,
  et al., 1989)
• Greater emotional refinement (poignancy,
  reminiscence Molinari Reichlin, 1996)

The classic view Old age is a time of
dampened, rigid, and flat emotionality (Banham,
1951 Jung, 1933 Looft, 1972)
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Sources of Pleasure and Conflict
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Emotional BehaviorsSame Amount Overall, But A
Shift in Kind
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Emotional Physiology Reduced Magnitude
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Summary Aging and Emotion--Loss, Gain, or Same?
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Emotional Expertise
Ebling Levenson (2003)
Method View video of 10 couples discussing a
marital problem for 3 minutes. Answer two
questions (1) Will they still be married five
years later (2) Rate their marital satisfaction
at the time of the taping on a 1-10 scale.
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Emotion and Dementia
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Social Neuroscience Approaches
Psychophysiological Same as damaged brains, but
using normal participants
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The social brain the usual anatomical suspects

• Ventromedial prefrontal cortex (green) social
  decision-making, planning, inhibition
• Amygdala (red) fear conditioning, processing
  emotionally-relevant stimuli including social
  stimuli social judgments approach/avoid
  decisions
• Right somatosensory cortex (blue) decoding
  complex emotional expressions via simulation,
  empathy
• Insula (purple) processing bodily signals,
  self-regulation

• Fusiform face area (green) face processing

• Cingulate (yellow) error monitoring, reward,
  autonomic responses
• Mirror neurons imitation, simulation, empathy
• Plus Visual association cortices, hypothalamus,
  thalamus, brainstem

Bottom line Its a fronto-temporal world
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Frontotemporal Lobar Degeneration (FTLD)
Normal

• Characteristics
• Degenerative
• 15 of all dementias (often misdiagnosed)
• Onset before age 65
• Rapid progression
• Clear-cut anatomical markers
• Involvement of brain areas important for emotion
  (e.g., amygdala, insula, temporal pole)
• Changes in emotion, personality, socio-emotional
  behavior precede gross cognitive changes

FTLD
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Change in Brain Morphology
Time 1
Time 2 (15 months later)
Frontotemporal Lobar Degeneration
Primary Progressive Aphasia
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Loss of empathy in frontotemporal dementia
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Loss of Empathy and Emotional Understanding
(Werner et al., under review)

No differences in physiological response to films
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Emotional Understanding Neural Substrates
FTLD Patients Recognition of Emotions in Photos
Correlations with Brain Volumes
p lt .05
(Rosen et al, 2002)
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Loss of self in frontotemporal dementia
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Loss of self-conscious emotion (the secondary
startle reaction)
Frontotemporal Dementia
Normal Young Adults
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Primary and Secondary Startle Reactions (Smith et
al., under review)

No physiological or behavioral differences during
primary startle
N53 (30 FTLD, 23 Age-matched controls)
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Changing personality in frontotemporal dementia
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Change in PersonalityInterpersonal Adjective
Scales
Dominant
Dominant
Warm
Cold
Warm
Cold
Submissive
Submissive
Premorbid
Now
Rankin, K. P., Kramer, J. H., Mychack, P.,
Miller, B. L. (2003). Double dissociation of
social functioning in frontotemporal dementia.
Neurology, 60(2), 266-271.
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Problems with emotion regulation in
frontotemporal dementia
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Instructed Regulation versus Spontaneous
RegulationCan-do Is Not Do-do
Failure to down-regulate when warned
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Different dementiasDifferent effects on emotion
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Dissociation of Social and Cognitive Function
Frontotemporal Dementia
Alzheimers Disease
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Emotion and Aging Summary

• Emotions are central to human functioning
  throughout the lifespan
• Emotional functioning is generally preserved in
  normal aging
• Emotional functioning is severely altered in
  certain dementias (FTLD, ALS) and relatively
  preserved in others (early stages of AD)