Dissociable neural effects of stimulus valence and preceding context during the inhibition of responses to emotional faces

Abstract

Socially appropriate behavior requires the concurrent inhibition of actions that are inappropriate in the context. This self-regulatory function requires an interaction of inhibitory and emotional processes that recruits brain regions beyond those engaged by either process alone. In this study, we isolated brain activity associated with response inhibition and emotional processing in 24 healthy adults using event-related functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) and a go/no-go task that independently manipulated the context preceding no-go trials (i.e., number of go trials) and the valence (i.e., happy, sad, and neutral) of the face stimuli used as trial cues. Parallel quadratic trends were seen in correct inhibitions on no-go trials preceded by increasing numbers of go trials and associated activation for correct no-go trials in inferior frontal gyrus pars opercularis, pars triangularis, and pars orbitalis, temporoparietal junction, superior parietal lobule, and temporal sensory association cortices. Conversely, the comparison of happy versus neutral faces and sad versus neutral faces revealed valence-dependent activation in the amygdala, anterior insula cortex, and posterior midcingulate cortex. Further, an interaction between inhibition and emotion was seen in valence-dependent variations in the quadratic trend in no-go activation in the right inferior frontal gyrus and left posterior insula cortex. These results suggest that the inhibition of response to emotional cues involves the interaction of partly dissociable limbic and frontoparietal networks that encode emotional cues and use these cues to exert inhibitory control over the motor, attention, and sensory functions needed to perform the task, respectively.

The Emotional Content of Faces Interferes with Inhibitory Processing: An Event Related Potential Study

“…Shafritz, Collins and Blumberg (2006) found greater activation in the VLPFC/anterior insula, posterior parietal cortex, ACC and left DLPFC during inhibition of happy and sad emotional faces. Similar results have been described by Hare et al (2008) and Schulz et al (2009) during inhibitory processes involving facial emotional expressions. In another FMRI study performed with happy and sad faces (Vanderhasselt, Kühn & De Raedt, 2011), it has been found that high clinically healthy brooders, who frequently think about negative events, compensate for their difficulty in inhibiting negative information by recruiting more attentional control.…”

“…However, these effects may be related to the interaction of the two networks proposed by Schulz et al (2009) during inhibition of responses to emotional faces: on the one hand, the frontoparietal circuit that exerts inhibitory control; and, on the other, the frontostriatal circuit, which is engaged in the decodification of emotional signals. Another point to be taken into account is the participation of the ACC in emotional valence, as has been described in other studies (Albert et al, 2010;Elliot, Rubitnsztein, et al, 2000).…”

“…Also, the effects of emotions expressed by human faces on the inhibition of a prepotent response have been explored by imaging studies (Shafritz et al, 2006;Hare et al, 2008;Schulz et al, 2009); however, to the best of our knowledge, such effects have not been studied using ERP recordings that, as stated above, may explain the temporal occurrence of cognitive processes, and might serve as an index of the modulating effect of emotional stimuli on these processes, specifically inhibition. Therefore, the objective of the present study was to evaluate the effects of facial emotional expressions on inhibitory processing by evaluating ERPs in a Go/NoGo paradigm.…”

Brain Activities on fMRI Using the shiritori Task in Normal Subjects

“…As to the function of pars orbitalis, it has been implicated in the semantic processing of language [12][13][14]. Furthermore, although it is thought to be related to inhibitory control [15,16] and motivation [17,18], these are usually associated with activation of both sides. Our study showed that the pars orbitalis was activated bilaterally.…”

The Role of a Temperament Intervention in Kindergarten Children’s Standardized Academic Achievement

“…High negative reactivity can inhibit children's attention, cooperative learning, academic motivation, and information recall (Pekrun et al, 2009;Schultz et al, 2009;Perbandt, 2007;Granziano, et al, 2007;Gilliom et al, 2002). Consequently, children with high negative reactivity have difficulty not only acquiring early academic skills but also are at risk for overall academic underachievement (Denham et al, 2012;Newman et al, 1998).…”