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Despite the graying of the world population and increasing relevance of decision competence across the life span, scant research has focused on whether or how reward processing and risky decision making may change across adulthood. Here, we review studies that have examined how age influences psychological and neural responses to financial incentives and risk. The findings suggest that while processing of basic rewards may be maintained across the adult life span, learning about new rewards may decline as a function of age. Further, these behavioral changes can be linked to relative preservation of striatal function in the face of age-related declines in the connectivity of the prefrontal cortex to the striatum. This frontostriatal disconnection may impair risky decision making, both in the laboratory and the real world. In addition to informing theory about how affect and cognition combine to guide choice, these novel findings imply that a deeper understanding of how the aging brain processes incentives may eventually inform the design of more targeted and effective decision aids for individuals of all ages.
This book addresses a fundamental question about the nature of behavior: how does the brain process reward and makes decisions when facing multiple options? The book presents the most recent and compelling lesion, neuroimaging, electrophysiological and computational studies, in combination with hormonal and genetic studies, which have led to a clearer understanding of neural mechanisms behind reward and decision making. The neural bases of reward and decision making processes are of great interest to scientists because of the fundamental role of reward in a number of behavioral processes (such as motivation, learning and cognition) and because of their theoretical and clinical implications for understanding dysfunctions of the dopaminergic system in several neurological and psychiatric disorders (schizophrenia, Parkinson's disease, drug addiction, pathological gambling, ...) - Comprehensive coverage of approaches to studying reward and decision making, including primate neurophysiology and brain imaging studies in healthy humans and in various disorders, genetic and hormonal influences on the reward system and computational models. - Covers clinical implications of process dysfunction (e.g., schizophrenia, Parkinson's disease, eating disorders, drug addiction, pathological gambling) - Uses multiple levels of analysis, from molecular mechanisms to neural systems dynamics and computational models. " This is a very interesting and authoritative handbook by some of the most outstanding investigators in the field of reward and decision making ", Professor Edmund T. Rolls, Oxford Center for Computational Neuroscience, UK
As the proportion of older adults continues to grow rapidly here in the U.S. and across the globe, aging adults may be required to make increasingly more independent health-related and financial decisions. Thus, it is increasingly imperative to better understand the impact of age-related psychological changes on decision making. Although a growing body of research has linked age-related deficits in attention, memory, and cognitive control to changes in medial temporal and lateral prefrontal cortical function, remarkably little research has investigated the influence of aging on valuation and associated mesolimbic function in the striatum and medial prefrontal cortex. Likewise, theoretical accounts link age-related declines in a number of basic cognitive abilities to dopamine function, but research has largely neglected age differences in value-based learning and decision making which also rely on the dopamine system. Recent findings reveal age-related declines in the structure of striatal and medial frontal circuits, however it was not previously clear whether these structural declines contribute to functional deficits in incentive processing. Thus, the seven experiments presented here explored potential age differences across a range of value-based tasks from basic anticipatory and consummatory responses to reward cues (Experiments 1--2) to probabilistic value-based learning (Experiments 2--5) to investment decision making (Experiments 6--7). The studies focus on both age-related and non-age-related individual differences in learning and decision making across the adult life span. Overall, three sets of key findings emerge. The first set of experiments on anticipatory affect reveal evidence for an age-related asymmetry in the anticipation of monetary gains and losses, such that older adults appear less sensitive to the prospect of financial loss than younger adults. In a subset of adults, this anticipatory affective bias contributes to loss avoidance learning impairments through the sensitivity of the anterior insula. Thus, although a relative lack of anxiety about potential loss may contribute to increased well-being, this asymmetry may put individuals with blunted loss anticipation at risk for certain types of financial mistakes. In fact, we show that individuals who perform poorly on the laboratory-based loss avoidance learning task accrue more financial debt in the real world. The second set of experiments focus on age differences in value-based learning and reveal that although older adults show intact neural representation of the actual value of reward outcomes, there is an age-related decline in the neural representation of prediction error at outcome in the striatum and medial prefrontal cortex. Age differences in learning are magnified when choice set size is increased, but when the number of trials is extended older adults reach the same performance criterion as younger adults. The third set of experiments focus on age differences in risky financial decision making and reveal that older adults make more suboptimal choices than younger adults when choosing risky assets. Neuroimaging analyses reveal that the representation of expected value in the nucleus accumbens and medial prefrontal cortex is correlated with optimal investment decisions, and that the age-related increase in risky investment mistakes is mediated by a novel neural measure of variability in nucleus accumbens activity. The presentation of value information through visual decision aids improves investment choices in both younger and older adults. These findings are consistent with the notion that mesolimbic circuits play a critical role in optimal choice, and imply that providing simplified information about expected value may improve financial risk taking across the adult life span. Across the experiments, the findings suggest that both age-related affective biases and probabilistic learning impairments can influence decision making both in the laboratory and in the real world through insular and mesolimbic brain regions. Importantly, age-related impairments are reduced under supportive task conditions (designed to target the brain systems identified using neuroimaging). Together, the set of experiments presented here suggests that understanding how the brain processes value information may eventually inform the design of more targeted and effective behavioral interventions for investors of all ages.
Until recently we have known little about how core decision processes change with age and how aging may impact the structure and function of corresponding ventromedial frontostriatal neural systems (Samanez-Larkin & Knutson, 2014). The chapter begins by briefly orienting the reader to frontostriatal brain networks, and then reviews age differences in a series of reward-related decision-making contexts. A range of decision-related processes are covered, from adult age differences in basic sensitivity to gains and losses to areas of decision making that require increasing integration of information, and from the qualification of potential benefits with associated costs (such as temporal delays or risk) to the rapid computation and updating of reward signals during feedback-driven learning. Each of the sections that follow first briefly reviews the behavioral evidence, and then reviews the often very limited initial evidence for age differences in neural structure and function associated with the behavioral differences in reward processing and decision making. The studies reviewed focus almost exclusively on monetary incentives, although reference will be made to the few existing studies that examine age differences in other types of rewards. A closing discussion covers how the findings might be organized within emerging frameworks and theories and provides direction for future research.
By 2030 there will be about 70 million people in the United States who are older than 64. Approximately 26 percent of these will be racial and ethnic minorities. Overall, the older population will be more diverse and better educated than their earlier cohorts. The range of late-life outcomes is very dramatic with old age being a significantly different experience for financially secure and well-educated people than for poor and uneducated people. The early mission of behavioral science research focused on identifying problems of older adults, such as isolation, caregiving, and dementia. Today, the field of gerontology is more interdisciplinary. When I'm 64 examines how individual and social behavior play a role in understanding diverse outcomes in old age. It also explores the implications of an aging workforce on the economy. The book recommends that the National Institute on Aging focus its research support in social, personality, and life-span psychology in four areas: motivation and behavioral change; socioemotional influences on decision-making; the influence of social engagement on cognition; and the effects of stereotypes on self and others. When I'm 64 is a useful resource for policymakers, researchers and medical professionals.
Decisions large and small play a fundamental role in shaping life course trajectories of health and well-being: decisions draw upon an individual's capacity for self-regulation and self-control, their ability to keep long-term goals in mind, and their willingness to place appropriate value on their future well-being. Aging and Decision Making addresses the specific cognitive and affective processes that account for age-related changes in decision making, targeting interventions to compensate for vulnerabilities and leverage strengths in the aging individual. This book focuses on four dominant approaches that characterize the current state of decision-making science and aging - neuroscience, behavioral mechanisms, competence models, and applied perspectives. Underscoring that choice is a ubiquitous component of everyday functioning, Aging and Decision Making examines the implications of how we invest our limited social, temporal, psychological, financial, and physical resources, and lays essential groundwork for the design of decision supportive interventions for adaptive aging that take into account individual capacities and context variables. - Divided into four dominant approaches that characterize the current state of decision-making science and aging neuroscience - Explores the impact of aging on the linkages between cortical structures/functions and the behavioral indices of decision-making - Examines the themes associated with behavioral approaches that attempt integrations of methods, models, and theories of general decision-making with those derived from the study of aging - Details the changes in underlying competencies in later life and the two prevailing themes that have emerged—one, the general individual differences perspective, and two, a more clinical focus
Whether the decision is to have unprotected sex, consent to surgery, have an extra piece of pie, or spend rather than save for retirement, risky decisions permeate our lives, and sometimes with disastrous consequences. How and why risk taking occurs has important implications. Yet many questions remain about how neurobiological, psychological, and socio-cultural factors influence decision-making. This book advances basic understanding and scientific theory about the brain mechanisms underlying risky decision by integrating findings from a number of disciplines, including development and cognitive psychology, brain sciences, law, behavioral economic, and addiction. The result is a rich scientific framework for understanding the causal mechanisms of risky decision making across the lifespan. Book jacket.
Explores how the explosion of neuroscience-based evidence in recent years has led to a fundamental change in how forensic psychology can inform working with criminal populations. This book communicates knowledge and research findings in the neurobiological field to those who work with offenders and those who design policy for offender rehabilitation and criminal justice systems, so that practice and policy can be neurobiologically informed, and research can be enhanced. Starting with an introduction to the subject of neuroscience and forensic settings, The Wiley Blackwell Handbook of Forensic Neuroscience then offers in-depth and enlightening coverage of the neurobiology of sex and sexual attraction, aggressive behavior, and emotion regulation; the neurobiological bases to risk factors for offending such as genetics, developmental, alcohol and drugs, and mental disorders; and the neurobiology of offending, including psychopathy, antisocial personality disorders, and violent and sexual offending. The book also covers rehabilitation techniques such as brain scanning, brain-based therapy for adolescents, and compassion-focused therapy. The book itself: Covers a wide array of neuroscience research Chapters by renowned neuroscientists and criminal justice experts Topics covered include the neurobiology of aggressive behavior, the neuroscience of deception, genetic contributions to psychopathy, and neuroimaging-guided treatment Offers conclusions for practitioners and future directions for the field. The Handbook of Forensic Neuroscience is a welcome book for all researchers, practitioners, and postgraduate students involved with forensic psychology, neuroscience, law, and criminology.
The Orbitofronal Cortex plays a critical role in emotion, smell, and personality. This is the definitive volume on a brain region hitherto neglected in the neurosciences literature. It brings together world leaders in neuroscience to provide a comprehensive, integrative account of this region--one that will be the standard source for years to come.