title: Application of a cognitive neuroscience perspective of cognitive control to late-life anxiety.
abstract: Recent evidence supports a negative association between anxiety and cognitive control. Given age-related reductions in some cognitive abilities and the relation of late life anxiety to cognitive impairment, this negative association may be particularly relevant to older adults. This critical review conceptualizes anxiety and cognitive control from cognitive neuroscience and cognitive aging theoretical perspectives and evaluates the methodological approaches and measures used to assess cognitive control. Consistent with behavioral investigations of young adults, the studies reviewed implicate specific and potentially negative effects of anxiety on cognitive control processes in older adults. Hypotheses regarding the role of both aging and anxiety on cognitive control, the bi-directionality between anxiety and cognitive control, and the potential for specific symptoms of anxiety (particularly worry) to mediate this association, are specified and discussed.
authors.affiliation: The Sierra Pacific Mental Illness Research, Education and Clinical Centers (MIRECC), VA Palo Alto Health Care System and Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, Stanford University School of Medicine, United States. Electronic address: sherryb@stanford.edu.
authors.forename: Sherry A
authors.initials: SA
authors.lastname: Beaudreau
authors.forename: Anna
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: MacKay-Brandt
authors.forename: Jeremy
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Reynolds
mesh_terms: D000375:Aging; D001007:Anxiety / Q000150:complications / Q000503:physiopathology* / Q000523:psychology; D003071:Cognition / Q000502:physiology*; D003072:Cognition Disorders / Q000150:complications / Q000503:physiopathology* / Q000523:psychology; D006801:Humans; D007266:Inhibition, Psychological; D009483:Neuropsychological Tests; D009488:Neurosciences
keywords: Cognitive control; Inhibition; Late-life anxiety; Older adults; Worry