{"id":3750,"date":"2020-11-19T15:16:38","date_gmt":"2020-11-19T23:16:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/keck.usc.edu\/news\/seniors-who-experience-financial-exploitation-show-brain-differences-poorer-sight-and-hearing\/"},"modified":"2023-11-19T12:42:58","modified_gmt":"2023-11-19T20:42:58","slug":"seniors-who-experience-financial-exploitation-show-brain-differences-poorer-sight-and-hearing","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/keck.usc.edu\/news\/seniors-who-experience-financial-exploitation-show-brain-differences-poorer-sight-and-hearing\/","title":{"rendered":"Seniors who experience financial exploitation show brain differences, poorer sight and hearing"},"content":{"rendered":"\n \n \n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n
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Seniors who experience financial exploitation show brain differences, poorer sight and hearing<\/h1>\n\n\n<\/div>\n \n \n
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New light shed on older peoples\u2019 risk for scams and fraud in a pair of studies from the Keck School of Medicine of USC.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<\/div>\n \n

\n Wayne Lewis<\/span>\n \n November 19, 2020<\/span>\n <\/div>\n \n \n
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Scams and fraud exact a heavy toll on older adults, with estimates of yearly losses ranging from $3\u00a0billion to $36\u00a0billion in the U.S. alone.<\/p>\n

Lasting damage can occur. Because many seniors live off of resources accumulated across their working lifetimes, such as retirement savings, victims may be unable to recoup what\u2019s taken from them. Considering the additional impact on family members and caretakers, financial exploitation in this growing demographic is a significant public health concern.<\/p>\n

Two recent studies led by USC provide new insight into the little-studied question of which factors put older adults at risk for financial exploitation.<\/p>\n

One, published in Frontiers in Aging Neuroscience<\/a>, is only the second brain imaging study to center on financial exploitation in older adults. The scientists found that those who report being financially exploited show differences in the activity of brain regions tied to decision-making and social judgments compared to those without a history of financial exploitation.<\/p>\n

The other, which appears in Gerontology and Geriatric Medicine<\/a>, is the first study to focus specifically on the relationship between financial exploitation and frailty in older adults. The findings showed that those who reported being financially exploited are frailer physically \u2014 with particular deficits in vision and hearing \u2014 compared to their peers.<\/p>\n

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Duke Han (USC Photo\/Ricardo Carrasco III)<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The papers come out of the Finance, Cognition, and Health in Elder Study<\/a> at USC, which enrolls participants who are 50 years and older with no history of dementia. It is led by Duke Han, PhD, senior author on both publications and professor of family medicine, neurology, psychology and gerontology in the Keck School of Medicine of USC<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cUltimately, we want older adults to experience all the best in life, to hold onto their wealth and to live life well into old age,\u201d said Han, who is also director of neuropsychology in the USC Department of Family Medicine. \u201cIt crushes us to see them financially exploited. However, not all older adults are at risk for financial exploitation, and we want to try to predict which people might be more at risk.\u201d<\/p>\n

Brain differences correlate with falling victim to fraud<\/strong><\/p>\n

The Frontiers in Aging Neuroscience study used magnetic resonance imaging to examine neurological co-activity. Han and his colleagues compared 16 older adults who reported experiencing financial exploitation with 16 who did not, studying their brains while in a resting state. The scientists delved into functional connectivity \u2014 in other words, which brain regions activate at the same time.<\/p>\n

Functional connectivity can serve as a sort of canary in the coal mine, signaling changes that come with age-related diseases, including Alzheimer\u2019s, before alterations to structures in the brain are detectable.<\/p>\n

The research team focused in on three areas of the brain tied to making decisions and evaluating social situations. The study demonstrated subtle but significant differences between connectivity in these regions among those who reported financial exploitation compared to the control group:<\/p>\n