Aging and Reward System Response to Inflammation and Anxiety Study

Inclusion Criteria:

• Participants will be required to be in good general health (as evaluated during thephone and in-person baseline session)

• Participants will be aged 60 to 80 years.

• 3/4 the participants (n=30) will be those with clinically significant anxiety asdefined by a score of 5 or greater on the GAD-7;

• 1/4 the participants (n=10) will be those with low anxiety as defined by a GAD-7score of <5.

Exclusion Criteria:

• Presence of chronic mental or physical illness (except for anxiety)

• History of allergies, autoimmune, liver, or other severe chronic diseases

• Current and regular use of prescription medications such as steroids, non-steroidanti-inflammatory drugs, aspirin, immune modifying drugs, opioid analgesics,statins, antihypertensive drugs, anti-arrhythmic drugs, and antidepressantmedications (none in the last 6 months)

• Nightshift work or time zone shifts (> 3hrs) within the previous 6 weeks

• Previous history of fainting during blood draws.

• Claustrophobia

• Metal in the body

• Presence of co-morbid medical conditions not limited to but including cardiovascular (e.g., history of acute coronary event, stroke) and neurological diseases (e.g.,Parkinson's disease), as well as pain disorders;

• Presence of comorbid inflammatory disorders such as rheumatoid arthritis or otherautoimmune disorders;

• Presence of an uncontrolled medical condition that is deemed by the investigators tointerfere with the proposed study procedures, or to put the study participant atundue risk;

• Presence of chronic infection, which may elevate pro-inflammatory cytokines;

• Presence of an acute infectious illness in the two weeks prior to an experimentalsession.

• Current Axis I psychiatric disorders other than anxiety as determined by theResearch Version of the Structured Clinical Interview

• Lifetime history of suicide attempt or inpatient psychiatric admission.

• Sleep Disorders: Current history of sleep apnea or nocturnal myoclonus;

• Phase-shift disorder

• Current and/or past regular use of hormone-containing medications includingsteroids;

• Current and/or past regular use of non-steroid anti-inflammatory drugs;

• Current and/or past regular use of immune modifying drugs that target specificimmune responses such as cytokine antagonists;

• Current and/or past regular use of analgesics such as opioids;

• Current and/or past regular use of cardiovascular medications, includingantihypertensive, anti-arrhythmic, antianginal, and anticoagulant drugs;

• Current smoking

• Current excessive caffeine use (>600 mg/day) because of the known effects onpro-inflammatory cytokine levels;

• Evidence of recreational drug use from urine test.

• Body mass index > 35 because of the effects of obesity on proinflammatory cytokineactivity

• Any clinically significant abnormality on screening laboratory tests

• Clinically significant abnormalities in electrocardiogram