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The Journal of Neuroscience, June 14, 2006, 26(24):6422-6430; doi:10.1523/JNEUROSCI.0022-06.2006

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Behavioral/Systems/Cognitive
The Mellow Years?: Neural Basis of Improving Emotional Stability over Age

Leanne M. Williams,^1,2 Kerri J. Brown,¹ Donna Palmer,^1,4 Belinda J. Liddell,^1,4 Andrew H. Kemp,^1,2 Gloria Olivieri,^1,3 Anthony Peduto,^1,3 and Evian Gordon^1,2,5

¹Brain Dynamics Centre, Westmead Millenium Institute and Western Clinical School, University of Sydney, Westmead Hospital, ²Psychological Medicine, Western Clinical School, University of Sydney, and ³Magnetic Resonance Imaging Unit, Department of Radiology, Westmead Hospital, Westmead, Sydney, New South Wales, 2145, Australia, ⁴School of Psychology, University of Sydney, Camperdown, Sydney, New South Wales, 2006, Australia, and ⁵Brain Resource International Database, Brain Resource Company, Ultimo, Sydney, New South Wales, 2007, Australia

Correspondence should be addressed to Assoc. Prof. Leanne M. Williams, Brain Dynamics Centre, Westmead Millenium Institute, Westmead Hospital, Westmead, New South Wales, 2145, Australia. Email: lea{at}psych.usyd.edu.au

Contrary to the pervasive negative stereotypes of human aging, emotional functions may improve with advancing age. However, the brain mechanisms underlying changes in emotional function over age remain unknown. Here, we demonstrate that emotional stability improves linearly over seven decades (12–79 years) of the human lifespan. We used both functional magnetic resonance imaging and event-related potential recording to examine the neural basis of this improvement. With these multimodal techniques, we show that better stability is predicted by a shift toward greater medial prefrontal control over negative emotional input associated with increased activity later in the processing sequence (beyond 200 ms after stimulus) and less control over positive input, related to a decrease in early activity (within 150 ms). This shift was independent from gray matter loss, indexed by structural magnetic resonance data. We propose an integrative model in which accumulated life experience and the motivation for meaning over acquisition in older age contribute to plasticity of medial prefrontal systems, achieving a greater selective control over emotional functions.

Key words: functional brain imaging; medial prefrontal cortex; amygdala; basal ganglia; emotion; human aging

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Received Dec. 20, 2005; revised April 18, 2006; accepted April 24, 2006.

Correspondence should be addressed to Assoc. Prof. Leanne M. Williams, Brain Dynamics Centre, Westmead Millenium Institute, Westmead Hospital, Westmead, New South Wales, 2145, Australia. Email: lea{at}psych.usyd.edu.au

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