Prefrontal mediation of age differences in cognitive reappraisal.

Despite cognitive and physical declines, it has been suggested that older adults remain able to regulate their emotions effectively. However, whether this is true for all emotion regulation processes has not been established. We hypothesized that cognitive reappraisal, a form of emotion regulation requiring intact cognitive control ability, may be compromised in older age, and that this age difference would be mediated by reduced activation in prefrontal cortex (PFC).