Research group: Cognitive and emotional aging
| Head of group: |
Stefanie Brassen
PhD (Psychology) |
Overview
Our group studies how aging influences cognition and emotion using behavioral tools, peripheral physiology as well as structural and functional neuroimaging methodologies. We have a major current focus being the differentiation between successful and non-successful aging with respect to cognitive and emotional health. Both seem to be maintained by compensatory and adaptive mechanisms in response to age-related life and brain changes. We want to know how the brain contributes to this adaptation and whether/why this adaptation is lacking in non-successful aging like late-life depression and older people with cognitive impairment.
Research topics
- emotional processes in healthy emotional aging and late-life depression
- memory in healthy cognitive aging and dementia
- decision making and aging, e.g. regret regulation, delay discounting
- enhancement of cognitive and emotional health in older age
Key publications
- Brassen S, Gamer M, Peters J, Gluth S, Büchel C: Don't look back in anger! Responsiveness to missed chances in successful aging. Science 2012; 336(6081):612-4
- Brassen S, Gamer M, Büchel C: Anterior cingulate activation is related to a positivity bias and emotional stability in successful aging. Biol Psychiatry 2011; 70(2):131-7
- Büchel C*, Brassen S*, Yacubian J, Kalisch R, Sommer T: Ventral striatal signal changes represent missed opportunities and predict future choice. Neuroimage 2011; 57(3):1124-30
- Brassen S, Gamer M, Rose M, Büchel C: The influence of directed covert attention on emotional face processing. Neuroimage 2010; 50(2):545-51
- Brassen S, Büchel C, Weber-Fahr: Structure-funktion interactions of correct retreaval in healthy elderly women. Neurobiol Aging 2009; 30(7):1147-56
- Brassen S, Kalisch R, Weber-Fahr W, Braus DF, Büchel C: Ventromedial prefrontal cortex processing during emotional evaluation in late-life depression: a longitudinal functional magnetic resonance imaging study. Biol Psychiatry 2008; 64(4):349-55
