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Psychobiology of Emotion-Cognition Interactions in Ageing

Konstantinos Mantantzis, Friederike Schlaghecken, Elizabeth A. Maylor

Despite the physical and cognitive changes that accompany normal ageing, older adults appear to be well-adjusted and emotionally resilient throughout the ageing process. Older adults’ preference for positive experiences and emotional stability extends to a range of cognitive domains and emerges as a cognitive bias towards the processing of positive over negative information (‘Positivity Effect’). We investigated the psychobiological aspect of this phenomenon and, more specifically, the contribution of peripheral physiological mechanisms (e.g., energy availability and cardiovascular functioning) in the emergence of older adults’ positivity preference and positive emotionality. Our results point to an intricate relationship between physiological processes and emotion-cognition interactions in ageing, and highlight the importance of examining the synergy between these components when investigating age-related changes in cognition and emotionality.

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