# Brain ERPs to Assess Emotional Function in Normal Aging and MCI/AD

> **NIH NIH R01** · UNIVERSITY OF ROCHESTER · 2020 · $383,791

## Abstract

PROJECT SUMMARY
 This research addresses concerns in an NIH PAR, “Emotional Function in Normal Aging and/or MCI and
AD/ADRD”. It expands on foundational research in order to clarify the trajectories of change in emotional
processing and linked neurobiological factors in adults who are aging normally, as well as in individuals with
Mild Cognitive Impairment (MCI) and Alzheimer’s disease (AD). Its goals focus on 1) normative maturational
shifts in emotional processing, and 2) how dysfunction in the integrative neural-behavioral mechanisms of
emotional function manifest in MCI and the early stages of AD/ADRD. We propose to study brain Event-
Related Potentials (ERPs) in the context of affective processing of word stimuli based on the classic,
quantitative three-dimensional theory of affective (emotional) meaning developed by C.E. Osgood. Can the
emotional changes which accompany aging be elucidated by brain ERPs measured during processing of
affective word stimuli? What are the relationships among our ERP and behavioral measures and our
neuropsychological measures of cognitive ability and neuropsychiatric assessments of affect and emotion?
These questions will be studied in young adults, in elderly with normal cognition, and in like-aged individuals
afflicted with MCI and early-stage AD. In addition, we will examine how affective meaning in ERPs change in
MCI/early-stage AD when compared with like-aged normal elderly. Also studied will be the effects of gender
differences on affective meaning ERP measures both in the aging analyses and the cognitive impairment
analyses of MCI/AD. Our experimental design builds on a strong, empirically-supported framework of affective
processing and emphasizes the affective differences within Osgood’s model. Multivariate analysis methods
will be utilized, including separately studying combinations of ERP components related to particular
connotative word classes for men and for women.

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 9861981
- **Project number:** 1R01AG065314-01
- **Recipient organization:** UNIVERSITY OF ROCHESTER
- **Principal Investigator:** ROBERT M CHAPMAN
- **Activity code:** R01 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 2020
- **Award amount:** $383,791
- **Award type:** 1
- **Project period:** 2020-02-15 → 2025-01-31

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/9861981

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 9861981, Brain ERPs to Assess Emotional Function in Normal Aging and MCI/AD (1R01AG065314-01). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-21 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/9861981. Licensed CC0.

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