# Emotion Regulation in Depression and the Aging Brain

> **NIH NIH R01** · STATE UNIVERSITY NEW YORK STONY BROOK · 2021 · $505,098

## Abstract

Emotion processing skills (EPS), include 1) attention to emotions (e.g., attention bias to positive versus
negative emotions), 2) basic perception of emotions; and 3) strategies that people use to regulate their
emotions. Studies from our group and others have shown that these three constructs occur at different stages
of emotion processing. EPS are impacted by demographic variables, including age and sex, as well as
neuropsychiatric illnesses, including Major Depression. As people age in good health, they demonstrate
generally improved perception for and attention to positive stimuli, poorer perception for and attention to
negative stimuli, and different patterns of emotion regulation (ER) skills. In addition to age, EPS are moderated
by sex. For example, in studies of young adult and adult populations, females tend to demonstrate stronger
facial emotion perception skills relative to males, yet more frequently engage in potentially maladaptive ER
strategies during times of stress (i.e., rumination) that may contribute to sex differences in depression
prevalence. Patterns of sex differences in EPS during late-middle and older age (i.e., 55 years and older) are
less clear, and it remains unknown how EPS worsen during abnormal aging processes, such as in the case of
depression. Our initial work demonstrating the negative impact of depression on EPS and fronto-limbic circuitry
lays the foundation for this investigation. Given known depression-by-age interactions on cognitive aging, it is
imperative that we understand how sex and EPS are involved in depression among older people, as opposed
to assuming that what we know about EPS from younger individuals is applicable to those in late-middle and
older age. This proposal will focus primarily on the ER aspect of EPS, given its more proximal relationship to
mood disorders and its characterization as the primary feature of depression in some models. At the same
time, we will comprehensively measure EPS, as described in the Approach section. This proposal will: a)
characterize sex as a moderator of ER during late middle and older age (55-79); b) illustrate how ER is
moderated by abnormal affective aging (e.g., depression), and c) measure executive functioning (EF) as a
partial mediator of ER, given that EF declines with age and depression, and is known to be critical to
successful affective regulation. As an exploratory aim, we will model interactions of sex and disease. We will
study these constructs multi-modally, using self-report, behavioral, and neuroimaging tools, in line with the
Research Domain Criteria. In order to achieve a sample that is evenly distributed across the age range
sampled, the design is stratified for age (in 5-year epochs), depression status (i.e., never depressed, mild,
moderate depression severity) and sex, for a total sample of 180 individuals with usable data from all aspects
of the study. This study will clarify the effect of sex and depression on processes central to psychop...

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 10137307
- **Project number:** 5R01MH116033-04
- **Recipient organization:** STATE UNIVERSITY NEW YORK STONY BROOK
- **Principal Investigator:** Sara L. Weisenbach
- **Activity code:** R01 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 2021
- **Award amount:** $505,098
- **Award type:** 5
- **Project period:** 2018-05-24 → 2023-02-28

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/10137307

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 10137307, Emotion Regulation in Depression and the Aging Brain (5R01MH116033-04). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-23 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/10137307. Licensed CC0.

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