Age effects on social cognition: Faces tell a different story.

Abstract

The authors administered social cognition tasks to younger and older adults to investigate age-related differences in social and emotional processing. Although slower, older adults were as accurate as younger adults in identifying the emotional valence (i.e., positive, negative, or neutral) of facial expressions. However, the age difference in reaction time was largest for negative faces. Older adults were significantly less accurate at identifying specific facial expressions of fear and sadness. No age differences specific to social function were found on tasks of self-reference, identifying emotional words, or theory of mind. Performance on the social tasks in older adults was independent of performance on general cognitive tasks (e.g., working memory) but was related to personality traits and emotional awareness. Older adults also showed more intercorrelations among the social tasks than did the younger adults. These findings suggest that age differences in social cognition are limited to the processing of facial emotion. Nevertheless, with age there appears to be increasing reliance on a common resource to perform social tasks, but one that is not shared with other cognitive domains.

Age differences in default and reward networks during processing of personally relevant information

“…This finding differs from our earlier work, in which no age differences in self ratings were found (Keightley, et al, 2006), but is consistent with numerous reports of a negative emotional bias in younger adults and a positive emotional bias in older adults (e.g., Murphy & Isaacowitz, 2008;Spaniol, et al, 2008). Older adults also scored more highly on agreeableness, consistent with this type of positivity bias and with reports of more positive affect or mood in older relative to younger adults (Gross et al, 1997;Lawton, Kleban, Rajagopal, & Dean, 1992) and with reported age differences in personality traits (e.g., McCrae, et al, 1999;McCrae, et al, 2005).…”

“…In addition, this relation, along with the age difference in agreeableness, may explain the difference in results between the current study and our earlier paper that found no age differences in self ratings (Keightley, et al, 2006). That earlier study reported no age differences in either agreeableness or self ratings, so differences across samples in personality scores, coupled with a relation between personality traits such as agreeableness and self ratings, could result in inconsistent findings of age effects in these ratings.…”

“…Age differences in making judgments about personality traits in regards to one's self have not been found (Keightley, Winocur, Burianova, Hongwanishkul, & Grady, 2006;Ruby et al, 2009), and the self reference effect in episodic memory is also preserved into older age (Glisky & Marquine, 2009;Gutchess, Kensinger, Yoon, & Schacter, 2007). Although this work suggests that some aspects of self-reference are not markedly altered as we age, some of the other types of related processing, mentioned above, are influenced by aging.…”

Neural Correlates of Emotional Memories: A Review of Evidence From Brain Imaging Studies

“…Such factors could be linked to personality-and sex-related differences in emotional reactivity as well as in emotion control/regulation (e.g., Domes et al, 2010;Mak, Hu, Zhang, Xiao, & Lee, 2009), which might explain the increased incidence of affective disorders in people high in neuroticism (Bienvenu et al, 2004) and in women (Kessler, 2003). In addition to those factors, investigation of age-related differences in emotion processing also has the potential to contribute to our understanding of the neural mechanisms of altered emotional memory in mood and anxiety disorders as well as potential therapeutic cures, as aging is characterised not only by overall preservation of ability to process emotional information (Keightley, Winocur, Burianova, Hongwanishkul, & Grady, 2006;Mather, 2006;Phillips, MacLean, & Allen, 2002), but also by an enhanced ability to control emotion (Gross et al, 1997;Mather & Knight, 2005); the latter is reflected in a positive bias-i.e., the tendency to attenuate negative emotions and enhance positive emotions (Mather, 2006;Mather & Carstensen, 2005). Below, we will discuss findings from studies aiming to understand the role of personality-, sex-and age-related difference in the involvement of the AMY and its interaction with memory and/or cognitive control regions in emotional memories.…”

Features of Social Cognition in Late Adulthood

“…4 свидетельствуют о том, что пожилым респондентам труд-но дифференцировать эмоции радости и печали. Восприятие эмоции печали вызывает затруднения в пожилом и старческом возрасте, это подтвержда-ют данные исследований М. Кейтли [17] и З. Ванга [30]. Дифференциация эмоции радости в пожилом возрасте (55-60 лет) выполняется лучше, чем эмоции печали.…”