Neural correlates of emotion–cognition interactions: A review of evidence from brain imaging investigations

Abstract

Complex dynamic behaviour involves reciprocal influences between emotion and cognition. On the one hand, emotion is a “double-edged sword” that may affect various aspects of our cognition and behaviour, by enhancing or hindering them and exerting both transient and long-term influences. On the other hand, emotion processing is also susceptible to cognitive influences, typically exerted in the form of emotion regulation. Noteworthy, both of these reciprocal influences are subjective to individual differences that may affect the way we perceive, experience, and eventually remember emotional experiences, or respond to emotionally challenging situations. Understanding these relationships is critical, as unbalanced emotion–cognition interactions may lead to devastating effects, such as those observed in mood and anxiety disorders. The present review analyses the reciprocal relationships between emotion and cognition, based on evidence derived from brain imaging investigations focusing on three main topics: (1) the impact of emotion on cognition, (2) the impact of cognition on emotion, and (3) the role of individual differences in emotion–cognition interactions. This evidence will be discussed in the context of identifying aspects that are fundamental to understanding the mechanisms underlying emotion–cognition interactions in healthy functioning, and to understanding changes associated with affective disorders.

Emotion does not influence prefrontal cortex activity during a visual attention task. A functional near-infrared spectroscopy study.

“…For example, within the field of visual attention researchers propose that top-down processing is characterized by goal-directed behavior whereas bottom-up processing refers to the automatic capture of attention by salient information in the environment regardless of task demand [9]. It has been argued that during tasks investigating the effects of emotion on cognition it is likely that both processing strategies are evident [7]. For instance during cognitive tasks involving emotional distractors, it is suggested that the influence of the emotional distraction depends on interactions between neural systems that allow an individual to stay focused on the task as well as systems responsible for the processing of emotional information [7].…”

“…At the behavioral level emotion has been shown to influence multiple aspects of cognition including working memory [1], task shielding [2], attentional control [3], and visual attention [4,5,6]. At the neural level research has shown that the prefrontal cortex (PFC) is involved in emotional processing during cognitive task completion; see [7,8] for recent compressive reviews of this research area.…”

“…It has been argued that during tasks investigating the effects of emotion on cognition it is likely that both processing strategies are evident [7]. For instance during cognitive tasks involving emotional distractors, it is suggested that the influence of the emotional distraction depends on interactions between neural systems that allow an individual to stay focused on the task as well as systems responsible for the processing of emotional information [7]. It is proposed that these two neural systems compete for processing resources and emotional distractors result in bottom-up processing of task-irrelevant information.…”

“…It has been argued that impairments in task performance can be mitigated by employing top-down cognitive control processes. These processes allow systems involved in the regulation of emotional responses to be activated and therefore deal with any emotional distraction present [7].…”

A Comprehensive Protocol for Manual Segmentation of the Medial Temporal Lobe Structures

“…For example, the hippocampus and the associated parahippocampal areas have been extensively studied in memory research [2][3][4][5] . Also, the role of the amygdala has been frequently emphasized in research examining emotion processing and emotion-cognition interactions [6][7][8][9][10][11] . Recently, various MTL regions have also received attention in the emerging field of personality neuroscience, which links the structure and function of these and other brain regions to individual variation in personality traits 12 .…”