ABSTRACT
Objective To explore the impact of emotional conflicts on the emotional attention pro-cessing between the elderly and the young. Methods A total of 37 young and 37 elderly participants were enrolled in the study. 2 (group:old group,young group) × 2 (Emotional valence of face:happy,fear) × 2 ( cue type:consistent and inconsistent) mixed experimental design was used among the emotional stroop task and eye tracking task for all of subjects. Results (1) Behavioral response analysis showed that stroop in-terference effects in young and old groups were not significant under different emotional conditions (F=0. 02, P>0. 05). (2) The internal characteristics of the face for the gaze time were analyzed,and the total gaze time of the elderly group (( 402. 28 ± 15. 88) ms ) was significantly longer than that of the younger group ((340. 52±15. 88) ms) under the happy-inconsistent condition(t=2. 75,P<0. 05). The total gaze time of the elderly group under the happy-inconsistent condition was significantly longer than under the fear-inconsis-tent condition((365. 96±13. 95) ms)(t=4. 32,P<0. 05). The first gaze time for a happy face was signifi-cantly longer than that for the fear face((315. 56±13. 13)ms vs (293. 51±13. 23)ms,t=4. 33,P<0. 05), and also showed a positive effect. Conclusion Emotional conflicts have an impact on the emotional atten-tion processing of the elderly,and the elderly are more likely to process the positive stimulation in the control stage.