NIH Radio

Right Click to Download MP3 File

Brief Description:

Researchers have found that the brain's reward-circuit activity mostly ebbs as we age.

Transcript:

Balintfy: Researchers have found that the brain's reward-circuit activity mostly ebbs as we age. Dr. Karen Berman at the National Institute of Mental Health, explains the importance of this discovery.

Berman: One of the big challenges that we all face is aging and aging gracefully, successfully and happily. And I think something that many people as they age fear the most is having something wrong with their brains. Either a dementia of some type or being depressed or not being able to enjoy life.

Balintfy: The NIMH study demonstrated for the first time in living humans how the activity of dopamine, a key messenger chemical in the middle of the brain, affects reward-related circuitry at the front of the brain — and how this changes as we age.

Berman: What we did in this study was to use powerful brain imaging techniques, two different types of brain imaging techniques. One that measures the dopamine in the brain, and the other that measures the brain's function.

Balintfy: Dr. Berman explains that dopamine in the brain is very important for things like motivation, happiness, experiencing rewards, and helping carry out plans.

Berman: So this is a very important chemical in the brain. And it has been shown that the receptors in the brain for dopamine decrease with age. So that's the first thing that we measured. We also measured the function of the brain as it responds to either anticipating getting a reward or actually getting one.

Balintfy: Dr. Berman and colleagues scanned 60-year-olds and 20-year-olds while they viewed a slot machine-like game on a computer screen. Moment-to-moment brain activity was monitored by functional magnetic resonance imaging. Then the researchers also used a positron emission tomography scanner to measure dopamine. Compared to the young participants, older participants showed less activity in brain motivation hubs.

Berman: So this study showed that as we age the way our brains process pleasurable events actually changes. That's actually the first time that this has even been done in older folks. And we feel that this is very important data that will help us not only to understand when aging is not so successful, but other disorders of this reward-related circuitry such as in schizophrenia, in Parkinson's disease, in drug addiction.