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Hemispheric Asymmetries in Emotion-Cognition Interactions

Anxiety Depression Disorder

In this research, the investigators will recruit 2 groups of individuals: older adults (aged over 65) with anxiety and/or depression and older adults without mental health issues. Individuals who are eligible to participate in the study based on their score in the Edinburgh Handedness Inventory (EHI) showing their hand preferences will have the opportunity to sign up using the online form created by the research team. This experiment will take place in an electroencephalogram (EEG) lab. Participants will wear an EEG cap with 256 sensors that record their brain activity while completing an emotional oddball task containing emotional pictures and shapes. The task will take approximately 1 hour with 8 short breaks. EEG is a safe and non-invasive testing technique, and participants will feel little or no discomfort during this EEG experiment. The goal of this study is to investigate the effect of fearful emotion on the cognitive oddball task to deepen understanding of the emotion-cognition interaction in older adults with mental health conditions.

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Participation Requirements

  • Sex:

    ALL

  • Eligible Ages:

    60 to 75

Participation Criteria

Inclusion Criteria:

* The healthy older adult group is composed of participants aged over 60 who do not exhibit mental health issues and demonstrate healthy aging from a cognitive perspective.
* The older adults with mental health issues group will consist participants aged over 60 diagnosed with these conditions are included while still demonstrating healthy aging from a cognitive standpoint.

Exclusion Criteria:

* Participants currently taking medication known to affect brain activity and/or cognitive processing.
* Participants with a history of alcohol or substance abuse.
* Participants with a history of head injury or concussion that may impact brain activity and/or cognitive processing.
* Participants with Neurological Disorders.
* Participants with Edinburgh Handedness Inventory scores falling within the range of \[-40, 40\].

Study Location

University of Alberta
University of Alberta
Edmonton, Alberta
Canada

Contact Study Team

Primary Contact

Fan Peng, EdD

[email protected]
5878730966
Study Sponsored By
University of Alberta
Participants Required
More Information
Study ID: NCT06406595