1. BACKGROUND
METHODS
RESULTS
DISCUSSION AND FUTURE DIRECTIONS
Mindfulness Disposition and Emotion Regulation in Older Adults: an fMRI Study
Monika Wanis, Brittney Schirda, Ruchika Shaurya Prakash
Department of Psychology, The Ohio State University
1. Emotion regulation training session
2. Emotional Reappraisal Paradigm
1. Health, mindfulness, worry questionnaires
2. Computer tasks
3. Film clip viewing
4. Emotion Questionnaires
Session 1
N = 100
fMRI Session 3
N = 40
Session 2
N = 100
1. 24 Emotional situation generation task
2. Emotion regulation strategy utilization
3. Computer tasks
Cognitive Emotion Reappraisal: Older adults are not better at cognitive reappraisal compared to young adults
Dispositional Mindfulness: This findings is consistent with the positivity bias and the socioemotional selectivity theory
Cognitive Reappraisal Success: Mindfulness may facilitate attention and awareness to emotions, rather than the ability to reappraise and modify them
Neuroimaging – Main Effect of Task: Older and younger adults have enhanced PFC recruitment in regions such as: orbitofrontal cortex, frontal and central operculum cortices, and
inferior frontal gyrus, which is indicative of successful emotion regulation, however, the insular cortex activation in young adults is indicative of bottom-up, emotional reactivity
Neuroimaging – Dispositional Mindfulness: Older adults with higher levels of dispositional mindfulness display significant functioning of cortical brain regions associated with
higher-level, top-down cognitive control and attention such as: superior and middle frontal gyri, frontal pole and paracingulate gyrus, and most notably, the posterior cingulate cortex
which is not activated when compared to older adults without higher levels of dispositional mindfulness, this is evidence for increased emotion regulation abilities via mindfulness
Future Directions: Include the instructions screen and rating screen in the fMRI analysis, look at deactivation in older and young adults
Implications: Future work is needed to develop a more refined understanding of cognitive, affective, and neural processes in aging and their potential malleability to neuroplasticity-
based approaches like mindfulness, ultimately, we aim to establish a new, integrative approach to inspire future research and clinical practice in the aging field
Aging Paradox
• Older adults show a decline in cognitive
control functions, but preservation of
emotion processing abilities
• Both processes rely on the prefrontal
cortex which also shows deterioration
What is Emotion Reappraisal?
• Re-evaluation of the meaning of affective
stimuli to alter the interpretation of the
stimulus to down regulate negative emotions
• Previous research reveals that emotion
reappraisal recruits prefrontal cortex regions
What is Dispositional Mindfulness?
• Purposeful, non-judgmental attentional awareness to present moment experiences
Previous Research on Mindfulness and Cognition
• Enhances quality of life and brain function connectivity
• Reduces anxiety, depression, pain and emotion based disorders
• Associated with increased attention and working memory capacity
• Reduces emotional reactivity and enhances emotion regulation
• Research examining effects of mindfulness on older adults is limited
Specific Aim
• Using a cross-sectional design, examine how individual differences in
mindfulness are associated with neural correlates of emotional regulation
• Older Adults N=50, Younger Adults N=50
Ochsner et al., 2002; 2004
Park et al., 2010
Hypothesis 1: Older adults are better at cognitive reappraisal of negative emotion compared to young adults
Hypothesis 2: Older adults have higher levels of dispositional mindfulness than young adults
Hypothesis 3: Older and younger adults with higher levels of dispositional mindfulness have greater levels of cognitive reappraisal success
Hypothesis 4: Older adults exhibit enhanced prefrontal cortex (PFC) recruitment and reduced amygdala reactivity during cognitive emotion reappraisal compared to young adults
Hypothesis 5: Older adults with higher levels of dispositional mindfulness have enhanced PFC recruitment during cognitive emotion reappraisal
Carstensen et al., 2011
Cognitive Emotion Reappraisal
n = 100Blue = Affect Observe
Green = Affect Regulate
• Main effect of
condition
• No main effect of
group
• No condition by
group interaction
Observe
Affect Observe
Regulate
Affect Regulate
Observe
2 secs.
6 secs.
Neutral Observe
Describe how negative or
positive you currently feel.
1= Very Negative; 4= Very Positive
4 secs.
Describe how negative or
positive you currently feel.
1= Very Negative; 4= Very Positive
Describe how negative or
positive you currently feel.
1= Very Negative; 4= Very Positive
Cognitive Reappraisal Success
(Affect Regulate – Affect Observe)
n = 50
R2 = 0.052
p = .058
•Significant negative
correlation between
mindfulness and
cognitive
reappraisal success
in young adults
Dispositional Mindfulness
n = 100
p < .05
•Older adults report
significantly higher
levels of dispositional
mindfulness than
young adults