Age-related differences in brain activity during implicit and explicit processing of fearful facial expressions.
Age-related differences in neural correlates underlying implicit and explicit emotion processing are unclear. Within the framework of the Frontoamygdalar Age-related Differences in Emotion model (St Jacques et al., 2009), our objectives were to examine the behavioral and neural modifications that occur with age for both processes. During explicit and implicit processing of fearful faces, we expected to observe less amygdala activity in older adults (OA) than in younger adults (YA), associated with poorer recognition performance in the explicit task, and more frontal activity during implicit processing, suggesting compensation. At a behavioral level, explicit recognition of fearful faces was impaired in OA compared with YA. We did not observe any cerebral differences between OA and YA during the implicit task, whereas in the explicit task, OA recruited more frontal, parietal, temporal, occipital, and cingulate areas. Our findings suggest that automatic processing of emotion may be preserved during aging, whereas deliberate processing is impaired. Additional neural recruitment in OA did not appear to compensate for their behavioral deficits.
Laboratoire de Psychologie et Neurocognition (LPNC), CNRS, UMR 5105, University Savoie Mont Blanc, Chambéry, France. Electronic address: isabella.zsoldos@univ-smb.fr.
Isabella
I
Zsoldos
Laboratoire de Psychologie et Neurocognition (LPNC), CNRS, UMR 5105, University Grenoble Alpes, Grenoble, France.
Emilie
E
Cousin
Laboratoire de Psychologie et Neurocognition (LPNC), CNRS, UMR 5105, University Grenoble Alpes, Grenoble, France.
Yanica
Y
Klein-Koerkamp
Laboratoire de Psychologie et Neurocognition (LPNC), CNRS, UMR 5105, University Grenoble Alpes, Grenoble, France.
Cédric
C
Pichat
Laboratoire de Psychologie et Neurocognition (LPNC), CNRS, UMR 5105, University Savoie Mont Blanc, Chambéry, France.
Pascal
P
Hot
D000328:Adult; D000367:Age Factors; D000368:Aged; D000375:Aging; D000679:Amygdala / Q000502:physiology; D001931:Brain Mapping / Q000379:methods; D004644:Emotions / Q000502:physiology; D005145:Face; D005149:Facial Expression; D000066499:Facial Recognition / Q000502:physiology*; D005239:Fear / Q000502:physiology*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008279:Magnetic Resonance Imaging; D008297:Male; D010364:Pattern Recognition, Visual / Q000502:physiology; D010775:Photic Stimulation / Q000379:methods
Aging; Explicit task; FMRI; Fear; Implicit task