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Age and Brain Processing Effect on Detection of Emotion

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Implication of Age and Brain Processing On Emotion Detection

Introduction and Background Information

In most case, individuals come across situations where it is more than challenging to deal with all the stimuli that are available (Reed, Chan, & Mikels, 2014: Waring, Addis, & Kensinger, 2013).). It is therefore of great importance that one be able to have the capability to modify its attention ability to chose only the most significant piece of data from the environment that they can be able to attend to. Additionally, previous literatures reviews and research studies have established that, the concept of situational attention in young adults can be said to be privy. Moreover, precious research works have also indicated that an increase in brain processing activity also plays a very crucial role in emotions. In other words, any negative stimuli has visual and emotional processing as shown by a number of neuron-imaging and behavioral studies to engage high attention and in the process, induce more brain activity in the areas that are involved in visual and emotional processing as compared to neutral or positive stimuli. In other words, this modulation when it comes to emotional preference when classified in terms of age is acknowledged as the positivity implication (Rhodes & Anastasi, 2012). When it comes to normal aging, it is acknowledged that the preference that individuals attach to the negative effect disappears slowly by slowly and in some cases it shifts towards responding to stimuli that is positive relative to neutral and negative stimuli (Mazefsky, et al., 2013). In other words, there are only a handful of studies that have come out clear to indicate an increase in brain processing with age when it comes to positive information; hence in this case, it is essential to evaluate the implication of brain processing and age on emotions.

Various theoretical frameworks tend to explain the implications of age. For instance, based on Selectivity theory, it is argued that the reduction in the life span of aging individuals would play a very big role in making the older population tom prioritize their well-being and in the process, prefer their brains to process positive data as compared to negative data (Silvers, et al., 2012). In essence, this positivist modulation implication is one crucial element that determine the mood regulations and mood swings among the adult population that are postulated by cognitive control mechanisms which are known to grow and expand with the motivations of adult age and brain processing ability (Reed, Chan, & Mikels, 2014). In fact, this control process is believed to modulate the implications of negative data or positive data and in the process, could play a crucial role in developing the positivity implications that is witnessed during an adult age. In other words, the aging brain processing model which is another theoretical framework proposes an atrophy of structures of cerebral that are employed in emotional processing (Renfroe, et al., 2016).This kind of structures could alter the flow and the arrangement of negative processing and in the process, could result into positivity implications.

It is universally accepted that, the effect of positivist effect in the brain processing and age is only evidenced in behavioral studies (Rhodes & Anastasi, 2012). Additionally, when it comes to recall memory tasks, it is accepted that the older population that is healthy in most cases recall positive stimuli relative to negative ones as compared to the young population. In fact, this implication is also evidenced in attention paradigms. For example, during as task that revolve around passive viewing of two stimuli of emotions (faces or scenes) that were shown at the same time, it was acknowledged that the gaze aspect was relatively longer when a stimulus that was positive was displayed than negative stimuli in the aging population as compared to the young population. Moreover, in at ask acknowledged as a dot-probe, Reed, Chan, & Mikels, (2014) indicates that the aging population is attracted to a stimuli that is positive and in the process; they tend to avoid any negative stimuli that is displayed towards them. This can as well be linked to the brain processing activity (Rhodes & Anastasi, 2012). In essence, the amygdale which is apart of the brain would play a crucial role in contributing to the evaluation and examination of the emotional implications of stimuli and in the process, the Cortex, another brain part, would help in regulating the emotions in the brain. When it comes to the processing of negative emotions, it is accepted that older generation portray lower amygdale activities’ and the prefrontal cortex activities are higher relative to the young generation. Furthermore, the positive implication has also been witnessed on a number of ERP studies that have previously been carried out on the adult population (Ventura-Bort et al., 2016).

A number of behavioral studies that revolve round emotional appraisal or attention tasks recommended the fact that arousal stimuli level may play a crucial role I n modulating the age implication on the brain processing process on emotions. In other words, According to Zwierzynska, Wolke,& Lereya, (2013) the low-number of arousal level in terms of negative stimuli is less appealing to the adult population relative to young population. According to Lopez‐Duran et al., (2013) it is clear that the negative words are in most cases remembered easily ion both adult and young adults most especially in high arousal words but the opposite is clear in low arousal words in older population (Reed, Chan, & Mikels, 2014). In simple terms, by looking at the suggested data critically , it is important to note that high arousal words that revolve round automatic brain processes remains well taken care of with age with high emphasis given to the negative stimuli. On the other hand, the positivist implication occurs because of a controlled brain effect rather than an automatic brain processes. However, all the assumptions that have been formulated are believed to be based on the findings of behavioral studies.

Looking back at literature reviews, it can be noted that very few research works explored the concept of emotional stimuli with brain processing and age and this was only evident in mood induction paradigms. In other words, it is observed that, the adult moods are negative; it is acknowledged that adults do not tend to concentrate on the negative effect but they tend to channel their emotions towards the positive effect. Nevertheless, when it comes to a younger generation, the opposite is true.

Methods

Research participants

The research will involve 14 young adults’ seven men and seven women in total and the older generation will be represented by 14 adults aged 62 years and above. The two age-groups that will be chosen in the research will possess one culture and most of them had the same level of education and all those who will participate in the research will be right handed. Additionally, the research participants will be selected from 19 young populations and twenty-three older generations after a neuropsychological and medical screening. In this case, the research participants that will be selected were supposed to possess a normal if not corrected sight vision. Moreover, they will also have to be free from any activities or medical activities that may hamper the emotional process or psychiatric or neurological disorder either in the past or present circumstances. Further, to be chosen as a participant, the sampled population will have to possess a minimal rating of 27 based on the analysis of the MMSE-Minimal Mental State Examination, no more than 12 errors on Wisconsin Card Test short version (Frick, et al., 2014).

Stimuli

The stimuli of research will be displayed against a background that will be black in color using psychology software known as the E-prime software on a monitor that is 22 inch in size that will be situated approximately 90 cm from the research respondents. They will be made up of around one-hundred and eighty color pictures of scenes that will be deemed as natural( That will be set at 640 X 480 pixels) established at a visual angle that will angled at 16.4 degrees x 11.4 degrees. Moreover, the stimuli will also be made up of 60 positive, 60 negative 60 neutral scenes, In fact, all the visual scenes that will be carried out in this novel experiment will directly involve the research respondents and will be in close-up. Besides, the pictures will be chosen from a number of sources that include the internet that is not copyrighted, International Affective Picture System and an in-house database. Negative scenes in the research will include some of the most dangerous animals such as spiders, sharks among others. Other negative scenes revolved around unsafe environments such as tornadoes, fires tsunamis among others and this will be made worse by scenes of aggressive people carrying weapons with angry facial expressions. Furthermore, the positive scenes of this research will revolve around images that will be showing friendly and happy animals landscapes such as mountains, beaches coupled with friendly individuals. As such, the research will never be complete without establishing reactions ion neutral scenes such as animals of the same type, environments, people and objects in situations that are more neutral.

Based on the pretest results that will be conducted on 34 young volunteers that averaged around 22.7 years old, (10 men and 24 females), the one-hundred and eighty pictures will be selected and categorized based on the discrete emotion coupled with their level of arousement. The arousement level was determined on the scale of 9 for high arousal and 1 for none arousal which were the main variables of research variable. It is important to establish the fact that during the experiment, the variables of interest were verified and they were proven to be valid in young adults and were also evaluated based on their modulation with age (Mathieu et al., 2014). Additionally, the one-hundred and eighty pictures will also be rerated based on their valence ability on a scale of 9 as the most pleasant and 1 and the most unpleasant. In another research experiment, control test that will be carried out in this research based on the same kind of procedure as the one that was chosen in the initial main experiment. In this case, the ANOVAs analysis will be employed in establishing the statistical difference between the two age groups that will be employed in this research. In this case, neutral scenes, Positive scenes and negative scenes will be established based on respective mean valence.

Procedure/Protocol

Brain activity of both the young and adult population will be recorded based on an emotional categorization task that will revolve around natural scenes. Additionally, two experimental scenes will be carried out in block form by research participants with a break separating each experimental block from each other (Wrzus, et al., 2013). The research block will be made up of approximately thirty pictures that can be said to be negative, thirty neutral pictures and thirty positive pictures (Rhodes & Anastasi, 2012). In this case, the two blocks in question only differed based on their arousal level most especially when it comes to negative pictures since one contained low-arousal negative pictures whereas the other was made up of high-arousal negative pictures (Servaas, ET al.2013). Moreover, before moving to the next block, two groups of neutral and positive stimuli will be employed in an effort to curb the habituation implication. Nevertheless, the two stimuli groups will be made up of the same emotional attributes and will be made in a certain way that they are counterbalanced between participant’s blocks when it comes to the research age-groups to ensure that each block has the same number of positive, neutral and negative stimuli (Mathieu,et al.,2014). Moreover the blocks will be defined to see to it that the contextual influence of the implications of negative stimuli is assessed specifically when it comes to processing of neutral and negative stimuli. In each research block, the negative stimuli will be demarcated an displayed among the neutral and positive stimuli using the pseudo-random sequence and it was repeated 15 times to make the influence of the negative stimuli homogeneous and substantial across the block (Mathieu,et al.,2014).

Given the fact that the two experimental blocks that will be chosen in this research will only differ based on the nature of the negative stimuli, the difference that will be seen in each block in terms of neutral and positive stimuli will be directly or indirectly connected to the negative stimuli (Pacheco-Unguetti, & Parmentier, (2014). Therefore, to deal with any cases of experimental bias, the order of the blocks will be distributed randomly across the research participated who are believed to belong to the same age group. Immediately after the completion of the block experiment the level in which individuals in different age groups will be aroused by each image that was employed in this experiment as a research stimuli will be assessed and re-evaluated on a scale that is continuous from 1 representing none arousal and 9 representing high arousal level using a joystick. The main aim of conducting the re-evaluation test will be to assess the possible appraisal difference based on the research participant’s age. As a result, the one-hundred and eighty pictures used in this research will be displayed once again in a more randomized sequence (Mathieu, et al., 2014).

One clear thing that should be taken in to consideration is the fact that, in previous research works and literatures, there are a number of other paradigms that have been employed in assessing the implications of the affective context (Servaas, ET al.2013). In this research, it is important to note that the oddball paradigm will not be employed so as to avoid task-related selective attention and probability implications on the effect of cerebral activity that is known to configure with age. Additionally, the employment of a priming paradigm at a closer analysis also seemed to bring along quite a number of methodological problem since it is acknowledged that the priming implications revolves around the delay between target and prime (Mathieu,et al.,2014). In other words, quite a number of research studies have indicated that the brain processing speed is much slower in the aging population as comported top the young energetic population. As a result, it will be very challenging to establish an optimal SOA for the research populations that will be tested in the research (Happé & Frith, 2014). Also, in this research, a classic emotional induction paradigm will not be employed since the main purpose of this experiment was to establish the influence of brain processing and age on emotional information. Most specifically, negative information processing based on neutral and positive information within the presentation sequence that is the same as opposed to the influence of an individual’s emotional state (Rhodes & Anastasi, 2012). Another reason why other paradigms discussed in most literature reviews will not be employed revolves around the fact that the paradigms that will be employed in this research will be considered to be more transparent and in the process, it reduces the demand biased responses.

Data Analysis

Subjective and behavioral data

For each research participant, the average rate of correct Reponses, which was classified as the accuracy of research will be measured for each category of the negative, neutral and positive stimuli in each condition of the experiment (Paulsen, et al.2013). In this case, a response that will be classified as the accurate response will be determined if the emotion that will be projected by the research respondents upon presentation of the stimuli will be the same as the one reflected during the pre-test analysis. Moreover, the mean rate of all the responses deemed accurate will be assessed and evaluated using the ANOVA repeated. Measure using the age of the participants low arousal or high arousal a factor that is between the contextual block and subjects factor i.e. (low arousal or low arousal) and emotion (positive, negative, or neutral) as subjects factors that are within (Rhodes & Anastasi, 2012). The mean comparisons of subjective and behavioral data will also be carried out using Tukey Post Hoc and the test significance will be established at 0.05.

Conclusion

One of the primary reasons for carrying out this research was to establish the detection of emotion based on brain processing and age. Based on the cerebral data, it is argued that the expected outcome will be able to support the idea that age and brain processing activities play a very crucial role in detecting emotions when subjected to stimuli. In this case, the older generation is believed to be aroused more when they are subjected to negative activities .As such, the people in old age would always prefer to be subjected to an activity that is positive since their brain processing is low as compared to the younger generation. Therefore, the expected outcome is that, brain processing and age play a very crucial role in detection of emotions.

References

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