Neural mechanisms of reading facial emotions in young and older adults
The ability to read and appropriately respond to emotions in others is central for successful social interaction. Young and older adults are better at identifying positive than negative facial expressions and expressions of young than older faces. Little, however, is known about the neural process...
| Main Authors: | , , |
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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Frontiers Media S.A.
2012-07-01
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| Series: | Frontiers in Psychology |
| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | http://journal.frontiersin.org/Journal/10.3389/fpsyg.2012.00223/full |
| _version_ | 1818441900922765312 |
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| author | Natalie Christina Ebner Marcia K. Johnson Håkan eFischer |
| author_facet | Natalie Christina Ebner Marcia K. Johnson Håkan eFischer |
| author_sort | Natalie Christina Ebner |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | The ability to read and appropriately respond to emotions in others is central for successful social interaction. Young and older adults are better at identifying positive than negative facial expressions and expressions of young than older faces. Little, however, is known about the neural processes associated with reading different emotions, particularly in faces of different ages, in samples of young and older adults. During fMRI, young and older participants identified expressions in happy, neutral, and angry young and older faces. The results suggest a functional dissociation of ventromedial prefrontal cortex (vmPFC) and dorsomedial prefrontal cortex (dmPFC) in reading facial emotions that is largely comparable in young and older adults: Both age groups showed greater vmPFC activity to happy compared to angry or neutral faces, which was positively correlated with expression identification for happy compared to angry faces. In contrast, both age groups showed greater activity in dmPFC to neutral or angry than happy faces which was negatively correlated with expression identification for neutral compared to happy faces. A similar region of dmPFC showed greater activity for older than young faces, but no brain-behavior correlations. Greater vmPFC activity in the present study may reflect greater affective processing, involved in reading happy compared to neutral or angry faces. Greater dmPFC activity may reflect more cognitive control involved in decoding and/or regulating negative emotions associated with neutral or angry than happy, and older than young, faces. |
| first_indexed | 2024-12-14T18:35:36Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-ef964363e1ea4a3d8e414101bbf16edc |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 1664-1078 |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-12-14T18:35:36Z |
| publishDate | 2012-07-01 |
| publisher | Frontiers Media S.A. |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Frontiers in Psychology |
| spelling | doaj.art-ef964363e1ea4a3d8e414101bbf16edc2022-12-21T22:51:38ZengFrontiers Media S.A.Frontiers in Psychology1664-10782012-07-01310.3389/fpsyg.2012.0022329081Neural mechanisms of reading facial emotions in young and older adultsNatalie Christina Ebner0Marcia K. Johnson1Håkan eFischer2University of FloridaYale UniversityStockholm UniversityThe ability to read and appropriately respond to emotions in others is central for successful social interaction. Young and older adults are better at identifying positive than negative facial expressions and expressions of young than older faces. Little, however, is known about the neural processes associated with reading different emotions, particularly in faces of different ages, in samples of young and older adults. During fMRI, young and older participants identified expressions in happy, neutral, and angry young and older faces. The results suggest a functional dissociation of ventromedial prefrontal cortex (vmPFC) and dorsomedial prefrontal cortex (dmPFC) in reading facial emotions that is largely comparable in young and older adults: Both age groups showed greater vmPFC activity to happy compared to angry or neutral faces, which was positively correlated with expression identification for happy compared to angry faces. In contrast, both age groups showed greater activity in dmPFC to neutral or angry than happy faces which was negatively correlated with expression identification for neutral compared to happy faces. A similar region of dmPFC showed greater activity for older than young faces, but no brain-behavior correlations. Greater vmPFC activity in the present study may reflect greater affective processing, involved in reading happy compared to neutral or angry faces. Greater dmPFC activity may reflect more cognitive control involved in decoding and/or regulating negative emotions associated with neutral or angry than happy, and older than young, faces.http://journal.frontiersin.org/Journal/10.3389/fpsyg.2012.00223/fullAgingAmygdalacognitive controlemotionfacesMedial prefrontal cortex |
| spellingShingle | Natalie Christina Ebner Marcia K. Johnson Håkan eFischer Neural mechanisms of reading facial emotions in young and older adults Frontiers in Psychology Aging Amygdala cognitive control emotion faces Medial prefrontal cortex |
| title | Neural mechanisms of reading facial emotions in young and older adults |
| title_full | Neural mechanisms of reading facial emotions in young and older adults |
| title_fullStr | Neural mechanisms of reading facial emotions in young and older adults |
| title_full_unstemmed | Neural mechanisms of reading facial emotions in young and older adults |
| title_short | Neural mechanisms of reading facial emotions in young and older adults |
| title_sort | neural mechanisms of reading facial emotions in young and older adults |
| topic | Aging Amygdala cognitive control emotion faces Medial prefrontal cortex |
| url | http://journal.frontiersin.org/Journal/10.3389/fpsyg.2012.00223/full |
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