The following is a summary of the “Depressive symptoms are associated with reduced positivity preferences in episodic memory in aging,” published in the January 2023 issue of Neurobiology of Aging by James, et al.
Greater memory benefits for positive and/or diminished benefits for negative content with age are examples of age-related positivity preference. However, it’s unclear if elderly people who don’t experience depression are the only ones who tend to favor a more optimistic outlook. Adults of varying ages and degrees of depressive symptoms participated in this functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) study. They rated the emotional intensity of images and then performed a recognition memory test.
Evidence for interacting effects between age and depressive symptoms was found in behavioral, univariate, and functional connectivity analyses. In the absence of major depression, age-related emotional preferences were shown, with younger people having a greater advantage in remembering negative imagery than older people. In addition, reduced positivity preferences manifested as gains in negative memory as depression symptoms worsened with age.
The brain results offered insight into potential underlying mechanisms, such as a decreased ability to activate regulatory processes to mitigate negative affect in older participants displaying more severe depressive symptoms. In addition, these results imply that the brain networks controlling emotion regulation are altered by depressive symptoms in older adults, leading to decreased positivity preferences.
Source: sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0197458022002202
