Using connectome-based models of working memory to predict emotion regulation in older adults.

Abstract

Older adulthood is characterized by enhanced emotional well-being potentially resulting from greater reliance on adaptive emotion regulation strategies. However, not all older adults demonstrate an increase in emotional well-being and instead rely on maladaptive emotion regulation strategies. An important moderator of age-related shifts in strategy preferences is working memory and its underlying neural circuitry. As such, individual differences in the neural integrity underlying working memory may predict older adults' emotion regulation strategy preferences. Our study used whole-brain working memory networks-derived from young adults using connectome-based predictive modeling-to predict working memory performance and acceptance strategy use in healthy older adults. Older adults (N = 110) completed baseline assessments as part of a randomized controlled trial examining the impact of mind-body interventions on healthy aging. Our results revealed that the working memory networks predicted working memory accuracy but not acceptance use or difficulties in emotion regulation in older adults. Individual differences in working memory performance, but not working memory networks, moderated relationships between image intensity and acceptance use. These findings highlight that robust neural markers of working memory generalize to an independent sample of healthy older adults but may not generalize beyond cognitive domains to predict emotion-based behaviors.