Anticipation of monetary gain but not loss in healthy older adults.
Although global declines in structure have been documented in the aging human brain, little is known about the functional integrity of the striatum and prefrontal cortex in older adults during incentive processing. We used event-related functional magnetic resonance imaging to determine whether younger and older adults differed in both self-reported and neural responsiveness to anticipated monetary gains and losses. The present study provides evidence for intact striatal and insular activation during gain anticipation with age, but shows a relative reduction in activation during loss anticipation. These findings suggest that there is an asymmetry in the processing of gains and losses in older adults that may have implications for decision-making.
Samanez-Larkin
Gregory R
GR
Department of Psychology, Stanford University, Jordan Hall, Building 420, Stanford, California 94305-2130, USA. glarkin@stanford.edu
Gibbs
Sasha E B
SE
Khanna
Kabir
K
Nielsen
Lisbeth
L
Carstensen
Laura L
LL
Knutson
Brian
B
D000328:Adult; D000367:Age Factors; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D000704:Analysis of Variance; D001931:Brain Mapping; D003342:Corpus Striatum / Q000098:blood supply / Q000502:physiology*; D005260:Female; D015577:Geriatric Assessment; D006801:Humans; D007091:Image Processing, Computer-Assisted / Q000379:methods; D008279:Magnetic Resonance Imaging / Q000379:methods; D008297:Male; D009042:Motivation; D009483:Neuropsychological Tests; D010100:Oxygen / Q000097:blood; D017397:Prefrontal Cortex / Q000098:blood supply / Q000502:physiology*; D012201:Reward
D010100:Oxygen