Age differences in the emotional modulation of attention: Effects of own-age versus other-age emotional face cues on the alerting and orienting networks

Abstract

This study used a modification of an attentional cueing task with emotional faces as cues to examine whether emotional cues influence the efficiency of alerting and spatial orienting, and whether the effects vary with the age of the faces and/or the age of the subjects. In this task, younger and older adults responded to the location of a target (left or right) preceded by a brief emotional cue (happy, sad, or neutral faces) or by no cue. Older adults showed a larger alerting effect than younger adults and this pattern was not further moderated by the valence of cues or the age of the faces. However, the results for the orienting effects indicated both age similarities and differences as a function of age of the faces. Both age groups exhibited orienting benefits from valid cueing by neutral and positive own-age faces, and showed orienting benefits for negative other-age face cues. Older adults appeared to be differentially influenced by orienting cues compared to younger adults as suggested by the cue-validity effect (i.e., response times slower for invalidly cued targets than for validly cued targets), especially for the own-age face cues. Whereas younger adults demonstrated the cue-validity effects for neutral and happy own-age face cues, older adults showed the cue-validity effects for the own-age face cues regardless of valence. The results highlight the importance of considering the age of the faces when assessing age differences in attention to emotional face cues.