THEY say that wisdom grows with age. Perhaps it is also accompanied by the ability to look on the brighter side of life. A study of adults over 65 suggests that they experience fewer negative emotions than younger people when anticipating losses.
Gregory Larkin of Stanford University, California, and his colleagues gave a group of adults aged over 65 and a group of 19 to 27-year-olds a task in which they had to respond to a cue to either win money or avoid losing it. Their brain activity was monitored during the exercise using functional MRI, and participants also reported their own feelings towards a potential loss or gain.
In both the self-reported response tests and the analysis of neural activity, the older people were less negative about the prospect of making a loss. Specifically, older adults showed less neural activity in the insula and caudate regions of the brain, which are thought to have roles in processing certain emotions. Positive responses to potential gain remained the same regardless of age (Nature Neuroscience, DOI: 10.1038/nn1894). 鈥淭his could be an adaptive process occurring over an individual鈥檚 lifetime, helping to reduce anxiety as they get older,鈥� says Larkin.
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