Table 2.

Summary of neuroimaging studies showing age-related differences in prefrontal cortex activity to positive vs. negative or neutral stimuli

Study	Stimulus	Task	Contrast	Age effects	BA	x	y	z
Addis et al. [45]	photo objects (positive, negative, or neutral)	size judgments	[positive > negative]	OA > YA	10/32	−1	35	3
				OA > YA	10/11/47	−34	40	0
Kensinger and Schacter [36]	photo objects (positive, negative, or neutral)	size judgments during encoding and recognition test	[positive R > positive F]-[negative or neutral R > negative or neutral F]	OA > YA	10	−1	30	−2
				OA > YA	24	−8	22	15
				OA > YA	33	8	6	28
Leclerc and Kensinger [22]	photo objects (positive, negative, or neutral)	size judgments	[positive > negative]	OA > YA	8	−36	24	48
				OA > YA	32	0	40	−4
				OA > YA	32	12	48	8
Ritchey et al. [44]	IAPS pictures(positive, negative, or neutral)	semantic elaboration or color processing	age X task X valence masked with [positive > negative in OA]X [deep > shallow in OA]	OA > YA	32	17	32	18
				OA > YA	10	−8	38	19
				OA > YA	10	−22	49	9
				OA > YA	10	20	49	4
				OA > YA	45	−39	15	14
Gutchess et al. [43]	positive and negative adjectives	self, other (Einstein) or case judgments	[self positive-other positive] >[self negative-other negative]	OA > YA	8	−28	12	54
				OA > YA	45	50	46	6
				OA > YA	32	12	38	40
Erk et al. [25]	IAPS pictures (positive, negative, or neutral)	passively viewing	[positive > neutral]	YA > OA	9	−2	64	20
Williams et al. [48]	faces (fear, happy, neutral)	passively viewing	[positive > neutral]	YA > OA	6	−18	22	54
				YA > OA	10	20	54	−2

R = Remembered; F = forgotten; YA = younger adults; OA = older adults; BA = Brodmann area. Coordinates are in MNI space and plotted in figure 2.