The Effect of Aging on Risky Decision MakingAnnika Neerdaels

Academic Advisor: Dr. Raquel A. CowellDepartment of Psychology, St. Norbert College, De Pere, WI

• Older adults will exhibit a declined capacity to shift attention from positive to negative information compared to younger adults.

• P3 and FRN analysis of older adults will show a greater preference towards positive information than negative in comparison with younger adults.

Di Rosa, Elisa, Mapelli, Daniela, Arcara, Giorgio, Amodio, Piero, Tamburin, Stefano & Schiff, Sami. (2017). Aging and risky decision-making: New ERP evidence from the Iowa Gambling Task. Neuroscience Letters. 640. 10.1016/j.neulet.2017.01.021.

Christian K. Tamnes, Ylva Østby, Anders M. Fjell, Lars T. Westlye, Paulina Due-Tønnessen, Kristine B. Walhovd; Brain Maturation in Adolescence and Young Adulthood: Regional Age-Related Changes in Cortical Thickness and White Matter Volume and Microstructure, Cerebral Cortex, Volume 20, Issue 3, 1 March 2010, Pages 534–548, https://doi.org/10.1093/cercor/bhp118

Additional references available upon request.

• Research surrounding the effects of aging on decision making has indicated that risky-decision making declines over the course of a human lifespan (Di Rosa et al., 2017).

• It is necessary to examine the decision-making behavior in younger adults (18-22) and older adults (55+) since they exhibit structural and functional neurological differences (Tamnes et al., 2010; Tamnes et al., 2013).

• Older adults show a declined capacity to shift attention from positive to negative information, and this change in feedback processing may lead to age-related risky decision-making declines (Di Rosa et al., 2017).

• Both feedback-related negativity (FRN) and P3 components will be analyzed as they represent different stages of feedback processing. FRN is a negative wave present at ~250-300ms and represents the amplitude difference between wins and losses (Sur & Sinha, 2009) with a greater difference indicating increased weariness of making a mistake.

• P3 is a positive wave present ~250-550ms after the onset of a visual stimulus. Existing literature indicates that the P3 amplitude is significantly negatively correlated with age, indicating that there is likely a decrease in cognitive processing speed as one ages (Cui, Chen, Shum, & Chan, 2013).

• A screening questionnaire assessing ability to engage in Acts of Daily Living (ADL) was used to determine participant eligibility.

• Data were collected from a 32-channel active electrode system (actiCHamp, Brain Products) and all electrodes impedances were kept below 30 kOhms.

• Notes of drastic movement and disruptions were noted during each session. • Event-related potentials (ERPs) were collected from 200 trials of the Iowa

Gambling Task.• Analyses included two separate mixed-design ANOVAs for both FRN and P3

amplitude values with Valence (win vs. loss) and electrode (FC1, FC2, CP1, CP2, and Pz) considered as within-subject factors, while age group (younger vs. older) was the between-subject factor.

• P3 results were significant and further analyses revealed that an age-related decline of P3 was present. This pattern is consistent with recent studies (West et al., 2014).

• The attenuation of P3 amplitude after negative feedback in older adults suggests that an age-related change in processing negative feedback may be present.

• Reduction in P3 amplitude could also have resulted from the natural tendency of older adults to seek positive information and avoid negative emotion triggering stimuli in comparison to adults (Mather et al., 2006).

Figure 2. ERP waveform differences between younger and older adults on the Iowa Gambling Task.

Positive Feedback

Figure 3. actiCap electrode montage.

Figure 1. Topographic map of P3 activation between younger and older adults displaying the positive feedback (top panel) and the negative feedback (bottom panel) conditions.

Younger adults Older adults

Negative Feedback

Introduction

Hypothesis

Methods

Participants

Results

Results Continued

Selected References

Discussion

AcknowledgmentsI would like to thank Dr. Raquel Cowell from the Psychology Department and my fellow research assistants. Any future inquiries can be directed to Annika Neerdaels at

annika.neerdaels@snc.edu

Inquiries?

• Younger adults displayed greater P3activation than older adults after experiencing a win in the Iowa Gambling Task (IGT).

• Both younger and older adults haddeclined P3 activation after experiencing a loss in the IGT compared to a win.

• Statistical analyses showed a significant difference between younger and older adults in both the win F(2,60)=6.4, p < .05 and loss F(2,60)=13.0, p = < .05 conditions.

• F-tests for FRN indicted no significance, so no further analyses were run.