Social & Emotional Understanding in Older Adults

Question 1

Does the brain reduce in volume as we age?

Answer 1

Yes, throughout the cortex, but more in:
- frontal & temporal areas

• Gray matter volume falls from one’s 20s (larger neurons shrink)
• White matter volume reduces in one’s 40s or 50s (reduced myelination)
• Age 70: more white matter lost, than gray matter

Question 2

How does age affect our fluid IQ?

Answer 2

• Guess where shaded area will be next
• Older adults fared worse than young adults (intact crystallised IQ, lower fluid IQ)

Question 3

In Sullivan and Ruffman (2004)’s study, what did they find out about older adults’ ability to recognise emotion in videos and still photos?

Answer 3

Older adults did significantly worse in recognising emotions.

Question 4

In a study of matching non-emotive and emotive images to sounds, how did the elderly fare?

Answer 4

Whilst they were on par with young adults for non-emotive tasks, they struggled with emotive faces.

Question 5

In an emotion meta-analysis, how did the older adults do compared to younger ones?

Answer 5

Emotions included anger, sadness, fear, disgust, surprise and happiness

• Faces: worse in every emotion but disgust
• Voices: worse in every emotion except fear and surprise (disgust not too much better)
• Bodies: Worse in everything except disgust and surprise
• Match voices to faces: worse in everything

Question 6

Which parts of the brain correspond to which emotions? How much volume do they have as we age?

Answer 6

Amygdala: linear decline in volume, less -ve emotions activated –> worse recognition of auditory expressions of sadness & facial expressions of sadness & fear

Orbitofrontal cortex: strong volume reduction relative to other brain regions –> worse recognition of f & a expressions of anger

Anterior cingulate cortex: consistent decline in vol & metabolic function –> worse facial recognition of anger & sadness

Basal Ganglia: spared with age –> spared recognition of facial disgust