情绪加工老化效应的神经机制

行为学研究发现，老年人对消极情绪的辨别、注意和记忆都有所下降，而对积极情绪并未表现出类似的现象。情绪加工老化效应的神经影像学研究发现，老年人在情绪加工过程中边缘系统（尤其杏仁核）的激活强度低于年轻人，但额叶皮层区域的激活却有所增强。研究者对该结果提出了两种假说，一种是功能代偿假说，另一种是策略改变假说。功能代偿假说认为老年人额叶皮层区域的激活增强是为了弥补边缘系统功能的下降，反映了大脑功能的代偿；策略改变假说认为老年人主动使用了不同于年轻人的策略，情绪加工方式的不同导致了两组人群大脑活动的差异。未来这方面研究可以从研究层面、研究方法、研究问题等方面逐步完善

Neural Mechanisms of Aging Effect on Emotion Processing

Behavioral studies have suggested that recognition, attention and memory for negative emotions declined in older adults while processing of positive emotions remained intact. Neuroimaging studies revealed that, during emotion processing, the activation of limbic system (especially amygdala) in older adults was weaker than their younger counterparts. However, the activation of the frontal cortex was relatively stronger in older adults. Based on these findings, two hypotheses were proposed, namely, the functional compensation and the strategic change hypothesis. The former argued that older adults’ stronger activation in the frontal cortex was to compensate functional decline in the limbic system, hence, reflecting the compensation of brain function. The later proposed that older adults adopted strategies which were different from younger adults. So it was the different patterns of emotion processing that led to different cerebral activities. Finally, the directions of future research and some problems need to be resolved were also discussed