Disentangling cognition and emotion in older adults: the role of cognitive control and mental health in emotional conflict adaptation

Visual Affective Stimulus Database: A Validated Set of Short Videos

Two hundred and ninety-nine videos representing four categories (people, animals, objects, and scenes) were standardized using Adobe Premiere Pro CC 2018, with a unified duration of 3 s, a resolution of 1080 pixels/inch, and a size of 1920 × 1080 mm². One-hundred and sixteen participants (mean age 22.60 ± 2.06 years; 51 males) assessed the videos by scoring, on a self-reported 9-point scale, three dimensions of emotion: valence, arousal, and dominance. The content was attributed a specific valence (positive, neutral, or negative) if more than 60% of the participants identified it with an emotion category. Results: In total, 242 short videos, including 112 positive videos, 47 neutral videos, and 83 negative videos, were retained in the video stimuli database. In the three-dimensional degree of emotion, the distribution relationship between them conformed to the fundamental characteristics of emotion. The internal consistency reliability coefficient for valence, arousal, and dominance was 0.968, 0.984, and 0.970. The internal consistency reliability of the emotional dimensions for people and faces, animals, objects, and scenes ranged between 0.799 and 0.968. Conclusions: The emotion short-video system contains multi-scene dynamic stimuli with good reliability and scoring distribution and is applicable in emotion and emotion-related research.

Conflict monitoring and adaptation to affective stimuli as a function of ageing

The current study investigated whether preference for positive affect would be observed in the context of a higher order control process with increasing age given the premise of affective prioritization with ageing. The study examined how affect interacted with cognitive control mechanisms across young, middle-aged and older adults. Conflict monitoring and adaptation for affective stimuli was examined with a face-word Stroop task using happy and fearful facial expressions. The participants' task was to detect the emotional expression (Happy or Fear) of the face shown with a distractor word (Happy or Fear) written across the face. Reaction time and accuracy data was analysed to compare adaptation effect and Stroop interference as a function of age, valence and previous trial congruence. The results demonstrated a stronger adaptation effect for negative affect in young adults and for positive affect in middle-aged adults and older adults. These results can be explained in terms of the socio-emotional selectivity theory of affective bias in the elderly and the involvement of attentional control mechanisms. This study empirically demonstrates shifts in affective bias towards positive affect with ageing through the implicit recruitment of cognitive control.

Depression and executive functioning bidirectionally impair one another across 9 years: Evidence from within-person latent change and cross-lagged models

BACKGROUND

Scar and vulnerability models assert that increased psychopathology may predict subsequent executive functioning (EF) deficits (and vice versa) over protracted timescales, yet most prior work on this topic has been cross-sectional. Thus, we tested the within- and between-person relations between EF, depression, and anxiety.

METHODS

Older adult participants (n = 856) were assessed across four waves, approximately 2 years apart. Performance-based EF and caregiver-rated symptom measures were administered. Bivariate latent change score and random-intercept cross-lagged panel models were conducted.

RESULTS

Within persons, random-intercept cross-lagged panel models revealed that prior greater depression forecasted lower subsequent EF, and vice versa (d = -0.292 vs. -0.292). Bivariate dual latent change score models showed that within-person rise in depression predicted EF decreases, and vice versa (d = -0.245 vs. -0.245). No within-person, cross-lagged, EF-anxiety relations emerged. Further, significant negative between-person EF-symptom relations were observed (d = -0.264 to -0.395).

CONCLUSION

Prospective, within-person findings offer some evidence for developmental scar and vulnerability models.

The modifying effect of positive emotion on the relationship between cognitive impairment and disability among older Mexican Americans: a cohort study

OBJECTIVE

To determine if positive emotion modifies the relationship between cognitive impairment and activities of daily living disability status over 10 years in Mexican American adults aged 75 years and older.

METHODS

A retrospective cohort design using data from the Hispanic established populations for the epidemiologic studies of the elderly. About 2674 participants aged 75 years and older were included and followed over 10 years. Cognition was measured using the mini-mental state examination, positive emotion was measured using four questions from the Center for Epidemiologic Studies Depression Scale, and disability was measured using seven activities of daily living items. A series of generalized estimating equations models were used, with the initial analysis including those with disability at baseline and subsequent analyses excluding disability at baseline.

RESULTS

Positive emotion and cognitive impairment consistently decreased and increased risk for activities of daily living disability, respectively. Positive emotion was a significant modifier in the cross-sectional analysis, and was not a statistically significant modifier in the longitudinal or predictive series analysis.

CONCLUSIONS

Positive emotion and cognitive impairment differentially affect the risk of developing activities of daily living disability. Further research is needed to explore the interaction of positive emotion and cognitive impairment, and to identify appropriate interventions that address the specific cognitive and emotional needs of older Mexican Americans. Implications for rehabilitation Promoting emotional well-being may be protective against incident disability for older adults. Cognitive impairment significantly predicts incident disability in activities of daily living and should be considered an early indicator of impending disability for older adults.