Investigating the Neural Correlates of Emotion–Cognition Interaction Using an Affective Stroop Task

Abstract

The human brain has the capacity to integrate various sources of information and continuously adapts our behavior according to situational needs in order to allow a healthy functioning. Emotion–cognition interactions are a key example for such integrative processing. However, the neuronal correlates investigating the effects of emotion on cognition remain to be explored and replication studies are needed. Previous neuroimaging studies have indicated an involvement of emotion and cognition related brain structures including parietal and prefrontal cortices and limbic brain regions. Here, we employed whole brain event-related functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) during an affective number Stroop task and aimed at replicating previous findings using an adaptation of an existing task design in 30 healthy young adults. The Stroop task is an indicator of cognitive control and enables the quantification of interference in relation to variations in cognitive load. By the use of emotional primes (negative/neutral) prior to Stroop task performance, an emotional variation is added as well. Behavioral in-scanner data showed that negative primes delayed and disrupted cognitive processing. Trials with high cognitive demand furthermore negatively influenced cognitive control mechanisms. Neuronally, the emotional primes consistently activated emotion-related brain regions (e.g., amygdala, insula, and prefrontal brain regions) while Stroop task performance lead to activations in cognition networks of the brain (prefrontal cortices, superior temporal lobe, and insula). When assessing the effect of emotion on cognition, increased cognitive demand led to decreases in neural activation in response to emotional stimuli (negative > neutral) within prefrontal cortex, amygdala, and insular cortex. Overall, these results suggest that emotional primes significantly impact cognitive performance and increasing cognitive demand leads to reduced neuronal activation in emotion related brain regions, and therefore support previous findings investigating emotion–cognition interaction in healthy adults. Moreover, emotion and cognition seem to be tightly related to each other, as indicated by shared neural networks involved in both of these processes. Emotion processing, cognitive control, and their interaction are crucial for healthy functioning and a lack thereof is related to psychiatric disorders such as, disruptive behavior disorders. Future studies may investigate the neural characteristics of children and adolescents with disruptive behavior disorders.

Altered Neuronal Responses During an Affective Stroop Task in Adolescents With Conduct Disorder

“…We applied an affective number Stroop task as previously described in Raschle et al (2017) ( Figure 1 ). Each trial started with an emotional stimulus, i.e., a negative (Neg) or neutral (Neu) stimulus (150 ms), followed by a task trial (congruent/incongruent/neutral Stroop trial or a blank screen) and finally a relaxation period, i.e., blank screen (350 ms).…”

“…The number of items was either congruent (C; e.g., number 3 in an array of 3) or incongruent (IC; e.g., number 1 in an array of 2) with the digits presented. Star shaped stimuli (S; as a neutral baseline counting condition) and blank trials (B; no response expected from participants) were used as control conditions (for further details see Raschle et al, 2017 ). Trial order and interstimulus intervals (which were 350–1850 ms) were randomized using Optseq 1 and kept constant across participants.…”

“…This is unlike previous studies using a similar task design, but a more lenient DBD diagnosis. We used a task design adapted from Hart et al (2010) , which was previously validated in a sample of healthy young adults ( Raschle et al, 2017 ). In contrast to Hwang et al (2016) , our task included a set of child-appropriate images, reduced task complexity, and adapted presentation times (e.g., shorter image presentation, longer Stroop task presentation).…”

Does Everyday Conversation Contribute to Cognitive Functioning? A Comparison of Brain Activity During Task-Oriented and Life-Worldly Communication Using Near-Infrared Spectroscopy

“…Another potential reason for the greater prefrontal activity increase during life-worldly communication is the effect of emotions. Studies on prefrontal activity and emotions have suggested that positive emotions activate cognitive functioning (e.g., in the PFC or insula) ( Raschle et al, 2017 ), negative emotions reduce PFC activity ( Aoki et al, 2013 ), anxiety reduces the hemodynamics of right PFC lateralization ( Tseng et al, 2018 ), pleasant feelings amplify dorsolateral prefrontal cortex activity ( Perlstein et al, 2002 ), and emotions and cognition interact to control thinking and behavior ( Gray et al, 2002 ). In life-worldly communication, subjects choose topics that interest or concern them.…”

Usability of Health Information Websites Designed for Adolescents: Systematic Review, Neurodevelopmental Model, and Design Brief

“…Salient elements of a message may attract attention to the extent of reducing adolescents’ available processing capacity to comprehend the message and remember it and its persuasiveness. It seems possible that this could be explained by a fundamental competition between emotion and cognition for neural resources because they share some neural networks [62]. This is particularly true if negative emotional images are followed by increasing cognitive demand, a sequence likely to occur in health information websites.…”