BACKGROUND

METHODS

RESULTS

DISCUSSION AND FUTURE DIRECTIONS

Mindfulness Disposition and Emotion Regulation in Older

Adults: an fMRI Study

Monika Wanis, Brittney Schirda, Ruchika Shaurya PrakashDepartment of Psychology, The Ohio State University

1. Emotion regulation training session2. Emotional Reappraisal Paradigm

1. Health, mindfulness, worry questionnaires2. Computer tasks3. Film clip viewing4. Emotion Questionnaires

Session 1N = 100

fMRI Session 3N = 40

Session 2N = 100

1. 24 Emotional situation generation task2. Emotion regulation strategy utilization3. Computer tasks

Cognitive Emotion Reappraisal: Older adults are not better at cognitive reappraisal compared to young adultsDispositional 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 reactivityNeuroimaging – 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

experiencesPrevious 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 limitedSpecific 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 adultsHypothesis 2: Older adults have higher levels of dispositional mindfulness than young adultsHypothesis 3: Older and younger adults with higher levels of dispositional mindfulness have greater levels of cognitive reappraisal successHypothesis 4: Older adults exhibit enhanced prefrontal cortex (PFC) recruitment and reduced amygdala reactivity during cognitive emotion reappraisal compared to young adultsHypothesis 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 = 50R2 = 0.052p = .058

•Significant negative correlation between mindfulness and cognitive reappraisal success in young adults

Dispositional Mindfulnessn = 100p < .05

•Older adults report significantly higher levels of dispositional mindfulness than young adults