Age Differences in Cortical Recruitment to Stereotype Threat and Resiliency for Self-Referenced Information

We investigated neural basis of stereotype threat and resiliency, and differences across age groups. Young and older adults judged whether words stereotypical of aging (e.g., frail, wise) and control words (e.g., friendly) described them while being scanned with fMRI. Judging stereotype words versus control words revealed higher activations in regions associated with self-referencing for older adults compared to younger adults. We also showed that older adults tend to employ a more social-comparsion, or contextual form of self-referencing, subserved by activations in posterior cingulate and precuneus, particularly for judgments of stereotype words relative to younger adults. Stereotyped information can detrimentally affect performance when the stereotype is salient and personally relevant. This is commonly known as stereotype threat, and has been shown to have robust effects in aging studies. Being made aware of stereotypes can also lead to a phenomenon called resilience, where older adults use those stereotypes to create downward social comparisons to “other” older adults and elevate their own self-perception. We sought to explore brain regions underlying stereotype threat responses as well as resilience responses. Brain regions that showed significant activation in older adults for threat responses relative to resilient responses included precuneus, which is associated with selfreflective thought, and parahippocampus, which has been implicated in autobiographical memory. These findings have implications for understanding how older adults approach and respond to old-age stereotypes in their daily lives. Additionally, it would be prudent for researchers examining aging to be aware of possible causes and effects of both stereotype threat and resilience, as they can affect performance, and hence, experimental outcomes.