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Age and Sex Differences in the Effects of Stress on Decision Making Mara Mather University of Southern California. Overview. Age differences in the effects of stress on decision making Study 1: Driving game Sex differences in the effects of stress on decision making

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Overview

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  1. Age and Sex Differences in the Effects of Stress on Decision MakingMara MatherUniversity of Southern California

  2. Overview • Age differences in the effects of stress on decision making • Study 1: Driving game • Sex differences in the effects of stress on decision making • Study 2: Balloon Analogue Risk Task (BART) • Study 3: fMRI of modified BART

  3. Study 1 Design Stress – hold hand in ice water for 3 minutes Control – hold hand in warm water for 3 minutes Mather, Gorlick, & Lighthall (2009), Psych Science

  4. Study 1 Design Stress – hold hand in ice water for 3 minutes Play a brief game involving risky decision making 18 minutes later… Control – hold hand in warm water for 3 minutes Mather, Gorlick, & Lighthall (2009), Psych Science

  5. Driving Game

  6. Stressed older adults drove less time during the yellow lights than other participants. Mather, Gorlick, & Lighthall (2009), Psych Science

  7. Stressed older adults stopped and restarted more frequently than control older adults. Mather, Gorlick, & Lighthall (2009), Psych Science

  8. For younger adults, stress has opposite effects on male and female decision strategies. Study 1 Study 2 Study 3

  9. Similar brain networks were active during the decision task across the four groups.

  10. But there whether the putamen was involved in the decision network depended on both stress and sex. Lighthall,Sakaki, Vasunilashorn, Somayajula, Nga & Mather (in preparation)

  11. Conclusions • Acute stress affects decision making – but differently depending upon both age and sex. • In Study 1, stress reduced older adults’ risk taking and increased stops/starts in the driving game. • In three studies, stress increased sex differences in decision making strategies among younger adults. • Stress was associated with increased activation in the putamen for males but decreased activation for females.

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