This Notice of Special Interest (NOSI) is intended to underscore NIA’s continued commitment to psychological and neuroscientific research on affective, motivational, and social functions in midlife and aging. NIA supports research to further clarify the changes in and trajectories of these processes in adults who are aging normally and/or in individuals with mild cognitive impairment (MCI), Alzheimer’s disease (AD), and AD-related dementias (ADRD). NIA also seeks to understand how changes in the structure and function of neurobiological and neuromodulatory systems mediate or moderate affective, motivational, and social behaviors and interact with other psychological functions, including cognition. NIA’s goals are three-fold: (1) to advance understanding of normative maturational changes in affective, motivational, and social processes, their role in behavior and cognition, and their underlying integrative neural-behavioral mechanisms; (2) to elucidate how dysfunction in these processes might manifest in MCI and the early stages of AD/ADRD; and/or (3) to determine how dysfunction in these processes might account for any of the Behavioral and Psychological Symptoms of Dementia (BPSD) observed in AD/ADRD. Such studies may identify novel targets for preventative or therapeutic interventions to promote social, emotional, and cognitive well-being; facilitate adaptive function in aging; normalize social or emotional dysregulation; and/or strengthen social or emotional resilience at different stages of the life course and at different disease stages in AD/ADRD.
NIA prioritizes multi-disciplinary research projects that examine affective, motivational, and social functions; address the dynamic interactions among differentially maturing brain systems and psychological processes; and determine trajectories of normative age-related changes, as well as those associated with MCI and AD/ADRD. Important individual and sub-population variables to consider include the impacts of sex and gender, race, socioeconomic status, and educational background. NIA also encourages targeted sampling of specific and especially vulnerable sub-groups of older adults, such as those with limited mobility, hearing loss, experiences of early life adversity, or cumulative disadvantages.
This notice applies to due dates on or after October 5, 2020 and subsequent receipt dates through January 8, 2022.
NOT-AG-20-040
