The neural mechanisms underlying socio-emotional reactivity in the ageing brain

My thesis aims at understanding how socio-emotional reactivity is represented in the ageing brain. The project is mainly focused on empathy-related mechanisms along with emotion regulation processes. Using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), psychophysiological measures and personality traits, I am investigating the temporal dynamics of brain activity during and after emotional events (emotional inertia). I am also exploring to what extent such emotional processes are related to health and disease-related (Alzheimer’s disease) biomarkers in ageing. Understanding emotions and emotional inertia in elderly people may help to develop new approaches to measure and treat affective and social disorders that may co-occur along with cognitive decline.