Emotional Priming Effects during Stroop Task Performance

Abstract

The ability to make decisions within an emotional context requires a balance between two functionally integrated neural systems that primarily support executive control and affective processing. Several studies have demonstrated effects of emotional interference presented during an ongoing cognitive task, but it is unclear how activating the emotional circuitry prior to a cognitive task may enhance or disrupt the executive system. In this study we used fMRI to examine the effects of emotional priming on executive processing during a number Stroop task. Our results indicated that during trials with less executive requirements, there was a greater aversive emotional attenuation effect in a network of regions including the ventrolateral prefrontal cortex (vlPFC), insula and cingulate gyrus. This attenuation effect was counteracted during trials with increased executive demand, suggesting that while pre-activation of the emotional system may lead to an automatic attenuation of activity in multiple regions, requirements for executive function may override the aversive emotional attenuation effect. Furthermore, this override effect was found to be associated with faster reaction times during executive processing. These findings demonstrate that activity in the vlPFC, cingulate and insula is dynamically adjusted in order to optimize performance, and illustrate the importance of the timing of each system's engagement in determining how competing cognitive and emotional information is processed.

Amygdala Functional Connectivity Predicts Pharmacotherapy Outcome in Pediatric Bipolar Disorder

“…However, the HC group showed relatively reduced right amygdala connectivity values, approaching the levels found in nonresponders. This slight, albeit not statistically significant, decrease could represent a reduced need to regulate the automatic responsivity of the right amygdala, as over time HC should become more comfortable in the scanning environment, and should habituate to seeing emotional words (Hart et al, 2010), even if they are not the same ones as they saw in the first session. In addition, the right amygdala connectivity values best differentiated between responders and nonresponders, although left amygdala showed a marginally significant difference as well.…”

Neural bases of the non-conscious perception of emotional signals

“…Emotional stimuli seem to constitute an exception to this effect of attention; indeed, there is extensive evidence from behavioural studies that processing of emotional information is prioritized 17 (that is, it is less dependent on attentional resources than neutral information). For this reason, emotional stimuli that are task-irrelevant, and ignored, nevertheless interfere with ongoing tasks 18,19 , delay disengagement of attention 20 and are more easily detected than neutral stimuli -as shown in visual search 21,22 and attentional blink paradigms 23…”

“…At the behavioural level, unattended or non-consciously perceived emotional stimuli can interfere with an explicit ongoing task -for example, by disrupting performance 18,19 , by delaying or speeding up responses to a simultaneously present and consciously perceived emotional signal (depending on the emotional congruence between the two stimuli 60,69 ), by affecting the disengagement of attention 20 or by altering perceptual sensitivity 34 . Likewise, attitudes and preferences towards neutral stimuli may be shifted towards Spontaneous facial and pupillary reactions can be triggered by passive exposure to consciously and non-consciously perceived expressions of fear and happiness in patients with cortical blindness and 'affective blindsight'.…”

Probing emotional influences on cognitive control: an ALE meta-analysis of cognition emotion interactions

“…Cognitive control is an umbrella term for a variety of separable executive processes including set-shifting, inhibition, maintenance and updating of working memory, or error monitoring (Banich et al, 2009;Miyake et al, 2000). Emotion, by comparison, is varied in valence (e.g., positive or negative), can occur during , Goldstein, Brendel et al 2007, Habel, Koch et al 2007) or prior to (Deckersbach, Rauch et al 2008, Hart, Green et al 2010) cognitive control, and can have distinct motivational significance (approach-related vs. avoidance-related) (Sutton andDavidson 1997, Roseman 2008).…”

“…In some tasks, the affective dimesion is task-relevant, i.e., participants need to pay close attention to the affective stimulus to solve the task (e.g., Goldstein, Brendel et al 2007, Chechko, Wehrle et al 2009). In other studies, the affective dimension was task-irrelevant, i.e., the affective stimulus served as a distractor (e.g., Hart, Green et al 2010, Wessa, Heissler et al 2012). These circumstances, alone or in combination, may have so far prevented a transparent picture of how emotion affects critical cognitive control processes.…”