EXPLORING NEUROPHYSIOLOGICAL CONTRIBUTIONS TO EMOTION ACROSS THE ADULT LIFESPAN

Across the lifespan, our bodies change shape and evolve—often in profound ways. Decades of research demonstrate that our emotions change too. Maturational shifts in emotion have long been linked to changing motivations and cognitive functioning with age. Theories that consider neurobiology often focus on single physiological systems, failing to account for correlated patterns of change across physiological systems with age. This dissertation aims to address this gap, exploring a newer theoretical model of emotional aging, the Physiological Hypothesis of Emotional Aging (PHEA). The PHEA argues that age-related increases in physiological damage and dysregulation may motivate the human brain to rely less on low-fidelity sensory information arising from the body, and more on its predictions about how the world ought to work (predictions based on past experience). Based on these hypotheses, the PHEA predicts that the emotions of aging individuals should become increasingly less coupled with ongoing physiological activity and be experienced as more neutral and less arousing. To test these predictions, this dissertation reports analyses on data taken from a study measuring several indices of peripheral physiological function and subjective affect in a healthy and diverse sample of adults ages 18-84. This work contributes to larger questions about the neurobiological mechanisms underlying healthy emotional aging and may ultimately speak to changes that characterize disordered aging. It can thus contribute to efforts targeting the unique health needs of our aging global population.