a. Participants were led to believe that a one-way video camera was embedded in the head coil of the fMRI scanner. During different blocks of the experiment, participants believed that a camera was projecting an image of their face in real-time (‘evaluation’ condition, right), ‘starting’ while evaluation was absent yet imminent (‘anticipation’ condition, middle), or off (left). b–d. Linear (b), quadratic (c), and asymptotic (d) age patterns under investigation. Plots of predictor variables, with each dot representing a participant.