# Social Reward Processing Across the Lifespan: Identifying Risk Factors for Financial Exploitation

> **NIH NIH R01** · TEMPLE UNIV OF THE COMMONWEALTH · 2024 · $650,575

## Abstract

Project Summary
Older adults are often victims of financial exploitation, which results in annual losses of at least $3 billion.
Threat of exploitation may be greater in those at risk for Alzheimer's Disease and Related Dementias (ADRD).
While most cases of financial exploitation are perpetrated by strangers, perpetration by individuals within the
victim's social network (e.g., friends and family) is common. Although these observations highlight the social
nature of financial exploitation, we know very little about how neural systems in older adults and those at risk
for ADRD integrate information from the social domain to inform financial decision making. Tasks involving
social information processing evoke activation in the temporal-parietal junction (TPJ) and dorsomedial
prefrontal cortex; whereas tasks involving financial decision making and reward processing evoke activation in
the striatum and ventromedial prefrontal cortex. It remains unclear whether responses within these neural
systems—and connectivity between them and other regions—differ as a function of age and risk for financial
exploitation. We recently demonstrated age differences in TPJ response during social decision-making in the
context of financial exchange (e.g., trust and fairness). We have also shown that the influence of social context
(e.g., presence of a peer) on striatal responses to reward is attenuated in older adults relative to younger
adults. Building on these exciting preliminary data, the goal of the current proposal is to characterize neural
responses during social decision making and reward processing across adulthood and quantify how these
responses relate to risk for financial exploitation. We will recruit a large sample of adults (ages 21 to 80+ years)
to participate in a neuroimaging experiment investigating social reward processing and the interplay between
social context and financial decision making. We will also administer neuropsychological and health
assessments, as well as questionnaires assessing socioemotional functioning and risk for financial
exploitation. Our project will address four aims. We will examine how neural responses to social and nonsocial
reward and decisions based on trust and fairness differ across the lifespan (Aim 1). Although neural responses
evoked by our tasks may be associated with risk for financial exploitation, it is imperative to determine how
such responses interact with sociodemographic factors, cognitive decline, socioemotional functioning, and
health (Aim 2). Notably, our quantification of health status will leverage two understudied risk factors for
ADRD—vascular health and white matter hyperintensities—and relate these factors to financial exploitation.
Finally, we will re-test a subset of participants with mild cognitive impairment (MCI) two years after their
baseline visit and assess changes in social reward processing and risk for financial exploitation (Aim 3).
Overall, our project will generate new insights into...

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 10891761
- **Project number:** 4R01AG067011-02
- **Recipient organization:** TEMPLE UNIV OF THE COMMONWEALTH
- **Principal Investigator:** David Victor Smith
- **Activity code:** R01 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 2024
- **Award amount:** $650,575
- **Award type:** 4N
- **Project period:** 2021-04-15 → 2026-03-31

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/10891761

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 10891761, Social Reward Processing Across the Lifespan: Identifying Risk Factors for Financial Exploitation (4R01AG067011-02). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-23 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/10891761. Licensed CC0.

---

*[NIH grants dataset](/datasets/nih-grants) · CC0 1.0*