Changes in functional connectivity associated with facial expression processing over the working adult lifespan

Abstract

Copyright © 2021 The Author(s). The recognition of negative emotions from facial expressions is shown to decline across the adult lifespan, with some evidence that this decline begins around middle age. While some studies have suggested ageing may be associated with changes in neural response to emotional expressions, it is not known whether ageing is associated with changes in the network connectivity associated with processing emotional expressions. In this study, we examined the effect of participant age on whole- brain connectivity to various brain regions that show connectivity during emotion processing, namely, the left and right amygdalae, medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC), and right posterior superior temporal sulcus (rpSTS). The study involved healthy participants aged 20-65 years who viewed facial expressions displaying anger, fear, happiness, and neutral expressions during functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI). We found that participant age was negatively associated with connectivity between the left amygdala and voxels in the left occipital pole, cerebellum, and middle frontal gyrus; between the rpSTS and voxels in the orbitofrontal cortex; and between the mPFC and cingulate cortex and right angular gyrus. Furthermore, most of these effects were due to a greater age-related decline in brain connectivity for negative expressions compared to happy and neutral expressions, providing further evidence for a specific age-related decline in the processing of negative emotions. These results indicate that changes in underlying functional connectivity might explain age-related changes in recognition of negative facial expressions across the adult lifespan.