Positive reinforcement modulates fronto-limbic systems subserving emotional interference in adolescents

Abstract

Fronto-limbic systems play an important role in supporting resistance to emotional distraction to promote goal-directed behavior. Despite evidence that alterations in the functioning of these systems are implicated in developmental trajectories of psychopathology, most studies have been conducted in adults. This study examined the functioning of fronto-limbic systems subserving emotional interference in adolescents and whether differential reinforcement of correct responding can modulate these neural systems in ways that could promote resistance to emotional distraction. Fourteen healthy adolescents (ages 9-15) completed an emotional delayed working memory task during fMRI with emotional distracters (none, neutral, negative) while positive reinforcement (i.e., monetary reward) was provided for correct responses under some conditions. Adolescents showed slightly reduced behavioral performance and greater activation in amygdala and prefrontal cortical regions (ventrolateral, ventromedial, dorsolateral) on correct trials with negative distracters compared to those with no or neutral distracters. Positive reinforcement yielded an overall improvement in accuracy and reaction times and counteracted the effects of negative distracters as evidenced by significant reductions in activation in key fronto-limbic regions. The present findings extend results on emotional interference from adults to adolescents and suggest that positive reinforcement could be used to potentially promote insulation from emotional distraction. A challenge for the future will be to build upon these findings for constructing reinforcement-based attention training programs that could be used to reduce emotional attention biases in anxious youth.

The impact of affective information on working memory: A pair of meta-analytic reviews of behavioral and neuroimaging evidence.

“…This is in line with evidence from tasks assessing executive control in processes other than WM (e.g., dichotic listening tasks, modified Stroop tasks or spatial attention tasks; Schupp, Flaisch, Stockburger, & Junghöfer, 2006; Yiend, 2010). The literature on the impact of affective distractors on WM performance again is mixed, showing no effect (Jenness et al, 2018) or impaired behavioral (Ladouceur, Schlund, & Segreti, 2018; Stout, Shackman, Pedersen, Miskovich, & Larson, 2017; Tollenaar, Ruissen, Elzinga, & de Bruijn, 2017; Wingert, Blais, Ball, & Brewer, 2018) performance.…”

Atrophy in the Left Amygdala Predicted Drug Responses in Idiopathic Generalized Epilepsy Patients With Tonic–Clonic Seizures

“…On the other hand, some studies have demonstrated that the amygdala and amygdala pathways can predict the treatment outcome of social anxiety disorder and affect therapeutic effects ( Klumpp and Fitzgerald, 2018 ). Experimental evidence suggests that emotional stimuli can influence many different aspects of cognition and behavior, resulting in disrupted cognitive goals and less optimal task performance ( Vuilleumier et al, 2001 ; Ladouceur et al, 2018 ). Emotional processing and regulation interact with treatment in a number of diseases.…”

Decoding visual fatigue in a visual search task selectively manipulated via myopia-correcting lenses

“…We proceeded to recruit a total of 39 Korean middle school students (female: 23; mean age: 13.53 years, SD: 0.25) with myopia. Sample size for the experiment was determined based on our prior study (Ryu et al, 2021 ) and on similar imaging studies with adolescents on attention research (White et al, 2016 ; Ladouceur et al, 2018 ; Shafer et al, 2020 ). Of the total recruited participants, eight participants had to be excluded due to repeated, excessive head movements (>3 mm, see below) during scanning.…”