Cognitive Control and Emotional Processing

Pessoa, Luiz

doi:10.1002/9781118920497.ch22

Cited by 10 publications

(20 citation statements)

References 71 publications

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“…However, in this situation, the working memory load may be related to the allocation of resources to emotion processing. This would be in line with the model proposed by Pessoa ( 2009 , 2017 ). Thus, this pattern may indicate that active maintenance of the task goal is easier in a low-than in a high-arousal condition.…”

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 91%

“…This reduces the number of goal representations in the focus of attention (Braver, 2012 ). Pessoa ( 2009 , 2017 ) postulated that high-arousal stimuli are related to the greater rivalry between affective stimuli and executive control for attention resources. Previous studies have shown that emotional arousal reduces activity in the cortical regions involved in cognitive control process and enhances activity in the cortical regions involved in the emotion processes (Hart et al, 2010 ).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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The Effects of Arousal and Approach Motivated Positive Affect on Cognitive Control. An ERP Study

Cudo

Francuz

Augustynowicz

et al. 2018

Front. Hum. Neurosci.

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A growing body of research has demonstrated that affect modulates cognitive control modes such as proactive and reactive control. Several studies have suggested that positive affect decreases proactive control compared to neutral affect. However, these studies only focused on the valence of affect and often omitted two of its components: arousal and approach motivation. Therefore, we designed the present study to test the hypothesis that cognitive control modes would differ as a function of arousal and approach motivated positive affect. In our study, we used an AX-continuous performance task (AX-CPT), commonly used to examine shifts in proactive and reactive control. We also measured P3b, contingent negative variation (CNV), N2 and P3a components of event-related brain potentials (ERPs) as indicators of the use of cognitive control modes. The findings of the present study demonstrated that approach motivated positive affect modified only the P3b and the CNV without effects on the N2 and P3a components. However, arousal induced by pictures modified P3b, CNV and N2 amplitudes. Specifically, the P3b amplitude was larger, and CNV amplitude was less negative in the high than in the low-approach motivated affect. In contrast, the P3b amplitude was larger and both the CNV and N2 amplitudes more negative in low- compared with high-arousal conditions. These ERP results suggest that approach motivated positive affect enhanced proactive control with no effect on reactive control. However, arousal influenced both proactive and reactive control. High arousal decreased proactive control and increased reactive control compared to low arousal. The present study provides novel insights into the relationship between affect, specifically, arousal and approach motivated positive affect and cognitive control modes. In addition, our results help to explain discrepancies found in previous research.

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Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 91%

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The Effects of Arousal and Approach Motivated Positive Affect on Cognitive Control. An ERP Study

Cudo

Francuz

Augustynowicz

et al. 2018

Front. Hum. Neurosci.

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show abstract

“…Happy faces were found to engage the orbitofrontal cortex, which is associated with reward (O'Doherty et al, 2003 ; Tsukiura and Cabeza, 2008 ). Reward, in turn, is believed to modulate cognitive control by fine-tuning executive functions needed for the task and by allocating additional resources (Pessoa, 2009 , 2015 , 2017 ). Thus, it is likely that the rewarding effect of a smile contributed to the happy face advantage in the n -back task.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…In everyday life, information is often emotional and researchers have started investigating emotional updating, with some even linking it to efficient emotion regulation (Levens and Gotlib, 2010 ; Pe et al, 2013a , b ). However, despite evidence that emotion can have both enhancing and impairing effects on executive functions depending on its relevance for the on-going task (Pessoa, 2009 , 2015 , 2017 ), task relevance of emotion was often not considered in previous studies on emotional updating. Moreover, it is not clear whether task-relevant and task-irrelevant emotion affects updating similarly in younger and older adults as aging is not only associated with changes in WM updating (Van der Linden et al, 1994 ; Hartman et al, 2001 ; Salthouse et al, 2003 ; De Beni and Palladino, 2004 ; Chen and Li, 2007 ; Schmiedek et al, 2009 ) but also in preference for emotional material (for reviews, see Scheibe and Carstensen, 2010 ; Reed and Carstensen, 2012 ).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Task relevance of emotion has indeed been found to play an important role in the effects of emotion on executive functions such as updating. According to the dual competition model (Pessoa, 2009 , 2015 , 2017 ), task-relevant emotion improves executive functions through recruitment of additional processing resources, whereas task-irrelevant emotion impairs them through detraction of resources from the task.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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When Emotions Matter: Focusing on Emotion Improves Working Memory Updating in Older Adults

2017

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Research indicates that emotion can affect the ability to monitor and replace content in working memory, an executive function that is usually referred to as updating. However, it is less clear if the effects of emotion on updating vary with its relevance for the task and with age. Here, 25 younger (20–34 years of age) and 25 older adults (63–80 years of age) performed a 1-back and a 2-back task, in which they responded to younger, middle-aged, and older faces showing neutral, happy or angry expressions. The relevance of emotion for the task was manipulated through instructions to make match/non-match judgments based on the emotion (i.e., emotion was task-relevant) or the age (i.e., emotion was task-irrelevant) of the face. It was found that only older adults updated emotional faces more readily compared to neutral faces as evidenced by faster RTs on non-match trials. This emotion benefit was observed under low-load conditions (1-back task) but not under high-load conditions (2-back task) and only if emotion was task-relevant. In contrast, task-irrelevant emotion did not impair updating performance in either age group. These findings suggest that older adults can benefit from task-relevant emotional information to a greater extent than younger adults when sufficient cognitive resources are available. They also highlight that emotional processing can buffer age-related decline in WM tasks that require not only maintenance but also manipulation of material.

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Differential effects of angry faces on working memory updating in younger and older adults.

Berger¹,

Richards²,

Davelaar³

2018

Psychology and Aging

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Research suggests that cognition-emotion interactions change with age. In the present study, younger and older adults completed a 2-back task, and the effects of negative stimuli were analyzed as a function of their status in the n-back sequence. Older adults were found to benefit more from angry than from neutral probes relative to younger adults. However, they were slower when lures were angry and less accurate when lures and probes had the same emotion. The results suggest that recollection of the n-back sequence was reduced in older adults, making them more susceptible to the facilitating and impairing effects of negative emotion.

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Cognitive Control and Emotional Processing

Cited by 10 publications

References 71 publications

The Effects of Arousal and Approach Motivated Positive Affect on Cognitive Control. An ERP Study

The Effects of Arousal and Approach Motivated Positive Affect on Cognitive Control. An ERP Study

When Emotions Matter: Focusing on Emotion Improves Working Memory Updating in Older Adults

Differential effects of angry faces on working memory updating in younger and older adults.

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