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Ventromedial Prefrontal Cortex Thickness Mediates Age-Related Shifts in Valence Bias

Poster Session B - Sunday, March 8, 2026, 8:00 – 10:00 am PDT, Fairview/Kitsilano Ballroom

Laelle Novotny¹ (), Jordan E. Pierce¹, Maital Neta¹, Hillary Schwarb¹; ¹University of Nebraska--Lincoln

The tendency to interpret emotionally ambiguous information (e.g., a surprised face) as more positive or negative is a phenomenon known as valence bias, offering insight into how emotional meaning is constructed and modified across the lifespan. Although it is well-established that a shift toward more positive interpretations occur with age, the contributions of neural structural integrity to this shift are underinvestigated. The ventromedial prefrontal cortex (vmPFC) plays a key role in evaluating affective meaning, integrating emotional and motivational information, and guiding regulatory responses. Although functional imaging studies have repeatedly implicated the vmPFC in emotional appraisal, less is known about how structural variation in this region relates to affective outcomes across the lifespan. In the present study, 410 participants aged 6–80 years completed a valence bias task where they were instructed to categorize clearly and ambiguously valenced faces and scenes as positive or negative. Structural MRI data were used to quantify cortical thickness in the vmPFC. Analyses examined whether vmPFC thickness predicted valence bias and mediated age-related changes in bias. Results revealed that individuals with greater vmPFC thickness showed a more negative bias. A mediation model indicated that vmPFC thickness partially and significantly mediated the relationship between age and valence bias: increasing age and reduced vmPFC thickness predicted a more positive valence bias. These findings appear to be specific to the vmPFC as no such mediation was evident in other cortical regions tested (i.e. insula or anterior cingulate cortex) that are also implicated in affective processing.

Topic Area: EMOTION & SOCIAL: Development & aging