The age of 40, a cut-point for the change in the emotional responses of the brain; a voxel-based meta-analysis

The change of emotional responses of the brain with age is widely discussed in literature, some of these studies found the age of 40 to be pivotal in this regard.Taking the advantage of new functional neuroimaging techniques, we conducted a voxel-based meta-analysis to analyze the difference in brain activation during different emotional stimuli between individuals below the age of 40 years in one hand, and individuals above 40 years in the other hand.During different emotional stimuli, individuals above 40 years tend to activate areas that provide better self-control especially during sadness.In contrast, individuals below 40 years activate areas that cause loss of inhibition, especially, during anger.