Thursday, August 14, 2025 8/14/2025

Affect regulation and Beta Amyloid: Maturational Factors in Aging and Age-Related Pathology

Award Number: R01MH113234
ORGANIZATION: NATIONAL INSTITUTE OF MENTAL HEALTH
OPDIV: NIH
AWARD CLASS: DISCRETIONARY
AWARD ACTIVITY TYPE: SCIENTIFIC/HEALTH RESEARCH (INCLUDES SURVEYS)
PERIOD OF PERFORMANCE START DATE: 07/01/2017
PERIOD OF PERFORMANCE END DATE: 05/31/2024

Group Awards By:

View Award Description

Affect regulation and Beta Amyloid: Maturational Factors in Aging and Age-Related Pathology - Our goal is to assess how affect regulation strategies are protective of cognitive and affective functioning in those who are at risk of suffering age-related disorders of mood and cognition. According to RFA MH-17-405, studies of maturational shifts in affect regulation often yield inconsistent findings and the neurobiological systems that support affect regulation remain largely untested. In this application, we propose to closely investigate the dynamics and mechanisms of two maturational trajectories that impact affect regulation: increasing age and beta-amyloid plaques within the brain. To date, most efforts have focused on age-related changes in valence regulation (e.g., the age-related positivity effect). Arousal is acknowledged as important, but very little is known about how older adults actively regulate their arousal states, or the proximal and longer- term consequences of such regulation attempts for risk of suffering age-related changes in mood and cognition. Recent findings from our team suggest that those who optimize for momentary comfort cultivate arousal-avoidance affect regulation trajectories, whereas those who optimize for mastery in memory and attention cultivate grit trajectories (the ability to tolerate momentary unpleasantness in the service of some goal that requires effort, which is often transiently experienced as an unpleasant aroused state). Our work also suggests that affect regulation is associated with both the structure and connectivity within two of the brain's core networks: the salience and default mode networks. In older adults, beta-amyloid (Aβ) plaques within these two networks are a key pathology—one of the two major molecular hallmarks of Alzheimer's disease (AD)— associated with elevated risk of cognitive decline, symptoms of depression, and dementia. With these observations in mind, our team will combine (a) innovative theory and methods from the study of normal maturational changes in situation-focused affect regulation, (b) structural, functional, and molecular brain imaging, and (c) innovative computational modeling of spatial and temporal dynamics in one large five year study designed to examine how arousal-regulation is associated with changing age and Aβ status. We will characterize situation-focused arousal regulation strategies and cognitive effort at various levels of difficulty using behavioral, experiential, and neurobiological levels of analysis, both in the behavioral lab and during brain scanning. Data analysis will involve constructing dynamic temporal trajectories across performance in each task to characterize arousal-avoidance and grit (i.e., tolerance of high arousal in the service of effort). We will characterize and compare arousal-avoiding and grit regulation trajectories in individuals who vary in age (from 40 to 90 years old), Aβ status, cognitive impairment, and mood symptomatology (distinguishing two types of symptoms: distress (negativity) and apathy (lack of effort or engagement). The findings from the proposed research will be used to develop a longer-term project to determine how the temporal dynamics of affect regulation predict developmental/maturational trajectories for mood disorders and cognitive impairment.


Issue Date FY	Funding FY	Legal Entity Name	Legal Entity Address	Legal Entity City	Legal Entity State	Legal Entity Zip Code	Legal Entity COUNTY	Legal Entity COUNTRY	Assistance Listing	Award Code	Budget Year	Action Date	Action Type	Action Amount

Issue Date FY: 2025 ( Subtotal = $0 )
2025	2021	NORTHEASTERN UNIVERSITY	360 HUNTINGTON AVE	BOSTON	MA	02115	SUFFOLK	USA	Mental Health Research Grants	000	5	10/15/2024	NON-COMPETING CONTINUATION	$0
														Subtotal = $0

Issue Date FY: 2023 ( Subtotal = $0 )
2023	2021	NORTHEASTERN UNIVERSITY	360 HUNTINGTON AVE	BOSTON	MA	02115	SUFFOLK	USA	Mental Health Research Grants	000	5	5/15/2023	NON-COMPETING CONTINUATION	$0
														Subtotal = $0

Issue Date FY: 2022 ( Subtotal = $0 )
2022	2021	NORTHEASTERN UNIVERSITY	360 HUNTINGTON AVE	BOSTON	MA	02115	SUFFOLK	USA	Mental Health Research Grants	000	5	2/8/2022	NON-COMPETING CONTINUATION	$0
														Subtotal = $0

Issue Date FY: 2021 ( Subtotal = $836,669 )
2021	2021	NORTHEASTERN UNIVERSITY	360 HUNTINGTON AVE	BOSTON	MA	02115	SUFFOLK	USA	Mental Health Research Grants	000	5	5/24/2021	NON-COMPETING CONTINUATION	$836,669
														Subtotal = $836,669

Issue Date FY: 2020 ( Subtotal = $850,275 )
2020	2020	NORTHEASTERN UNIVERSITY	360 HUNTINGTON AVE	BOSTON	MA	02115	SUFFOLK	USA	Mental Health Research Grants	000	4	5/18/2020	NON-COMPETING CONTINUATION	$850,275
														Subtotal = $850,275

Issue Date FY: 2019 ( Subtotal = $861,633 )
2019	2019	NORTHEASTERN UNIVERSITY	360 HUNTINGTON AVE	BOSTON	MA	02115	SUFFOLK	USA	Mental Health Research Grants	000	3	6/14/2019	NON-COMPETING CONTINUATION	$861,633
														Subtotal = $861,633

Issue Date FY: 2018 ( Subtotal = $865,956 )
2018	2018	NORTHEASTERN UNIVERSITY	360 HUNTINGTON AVE	BOSTON	MA	02115	SUFFOLK	USA	Mental Health Research Grants	000	2	8/9/2018	NON-COMPETING CONTINUATION	$782,548
2018	2018	NORTHEASTERN UNIVERSITY	360 HUNTINGTON AVE	BOSTON	MA	02115	SUFFOLK	USA	Mental Health Research Grants	001	2	9/7/2018	SUPPLEMENT FOR EXPANSION	$83,408
														Subtotal = $865,956

Issue Date FY: 2017 ( Subtotal = $791,698 )
2017	2017	NORTHEASTERN UNIVERSITY	360 HUNTINGTON AVE	BOSTON	MA	02115	SUFFOLK	USA	Mental Health Research Grants	000	1	6/19/2017	NEW	$791,698
														Subtotal = $791,698

Grand Total All Awards = $4,206,231

Top

All Categories

About

Search

Reports

Data Submission

Award Information

Affect regulation and Beta Amyloid: Maturational Factors in Aging and Age-Related Pathology

Award Number: R01MH113234

ORGANIZATION: NATIONAL INSTITUTE OF MENTAL HEALTH

OPDIV: NIH

AWARD CLASS: DISCRETIONARY

AWARD ACTIVITY TYPE: SCIENTIFIC/HEALTH RESEARCH (INCLUDES SURVEYS)

PERIOD OF PERFORMANCE START DATE: 07/01/2017

PERIOD OF PERFORMANCE END DATE: 05/31/2024

Federal Websites

Department of Health & Human Services

HHS Operating Divisions

HHS Staff Divisions

Download A Document Viewer