Short-term effects of activating cognitive control processes on emotional interference: an experimental study

Objective: Cognitive control is crucial for effective emotion regulation. While much research relies on self-report measures, experimental studies may provide deeper insights. This study investigates whether engaging cognitive control reduces emotional interference as an automatic regulatory mechanism.Methods: In this preregistered experiment, 80 participants completed tasks varying in cognitive control demands: a *Paced Auditory Serial Addition Test* (PASAT) and a speed-of-response task. Emotional interference was measured by changes in reaction time to emotional images during a simple discrimination task. Self-report data on rumination, emotion regulation difficulties, and distress were collected to explore moderating effects.Results: Negative emotional stimuli increased reaction times, indicating emotional interference. However, the degree of interference did not vary with cognitive control demand, nor did self-report measures moderate this relationship. The same pattern emerged when analyzing arousal instead of emotional valence.Conclusion: Unlike previous findings, our results suggest that the impact of cognitive control on emotional interference may be smaller and context-dependent. Factors such as emotion regulation difficulties, specific cognitive control processes, activation levels, and sensory modality might influence outcomes. Effects of cognitive control training may not stem from short-term reductions in emotional interference. These findings highlight the need for careful experimental designs and statistical approaches.

Cognitive control is necessary to flexibly act in changing environments. Sequence processing is needed in language comprehension to build the syntactic structure in sentences. Functional imaging studies suggest that sequence processing engages the left ventrolateral prefrontal cortex (PFC). In contrast, cognitive control processes additionally recruit bilateral rostral lateral PFC regions. The present study aimed to investigate these two types of processes in one experimental paradigm. Sequence processing was manipulated using two different sequencing rules varying in complexity. Cognitive control was varied with different cue-sets that determined the choice of a sequencing rule. Univariate analyses revealed distinct PFC regions for the two types of processing (i.e. sequence processing: left ventrolateral PFC and cognitive control processing: bilateral dorsolateral and rostral PFC). Moreover, in a common brain network (including left lateral PFC and intraparietal sulcus) no interaction between sequence and cognitive control processing was observed. In contrast, a multivariate pattern analysis revealed an interaction of sequence and cognitive control processing, such that voxels in left lateral PFC and parietal cortex showed different tuning functions for tasks involving different sequencing and cognitive control demands. These results suggest that the difference between the process of rule selection (i.e. cognitive control) and the process of rule-based sequencing (i.e. sequence processing) find their neuronal underpinnings in distinct activation patterns in lateral PFC. Moreover, the combination of rule selection and rule sequencing can shape the response of neurons in lateral PFC and parietal cortex.

BackgroundVarious mental disorders are associated with impaired cognitive control, which is crucial for effective emotion regulation. Cognitive control training has demonstrated promise in enhancing emotion regulation and alleviating distress in disorders characterized by repetitive negative thinking, such as depression and anxiety.ObjectiveGiven the importance of cognitive control and emotion regulation across mental disorders, this study investigates the efficacy of a mobile cognitive control training in a transdiagnostic outpatient sample awaiting psychotherapy.MethodsIn this randomized clinical superiority trial with 2 parallel arms, 80 patients with various mental disorders from an outpatient waiting list received either 10 sessions of mobile cognitive control training using the Paced Auditory Serial Addition Test (PASAT) or an active control training using a speed of response task. The primary outcome was mental distress, measured by the Hopkins Symptom Checklist-11 (HSCL-11). Secondary outcomes included measures of cognitive control, rumination, repetitive negative thinking, difficulties in emotion regulation, cognitive emotion regulation, and disorder-specific symptoms. Outcomes were measured at baseline, post training, and at 3-month and 6-month follow-up.ResultsContrary to our primary hypothesis, cognitive control training was not superior in improving global mental distress directly after training (B=−.03, 95% CI –0.21, 0.16; t179.60=–0.26; P=.80; d=−0.04, 95% CI –0.35, 0.28); however, it led to greater improvements in cognitive control (B=−0.56, 95% CI –0.59,–0.54; z=−18.02; P<.001; d=−1.23, 95% CI −1.30,–1.20). This effect was similar at the 3-month and 6-month follow-up. Furthermore, at 3-month follow-up, cognitive control training resulted in fewer difficulties in emotion regulation (B=4.73, 95% CI 0.52, 9.12; t177.99=2.09; P=.04; d=0.34, 95% CI 0.04, 0.65), and anxiety symptoms (B=2.94, 95% CI 0.38, 5.82; t66.51=2.09; P=.04; d=0.70, 95% CI 0.09, 1.38), although the latter refers to a small subsample of patients with anxiety disorders. At 6-month follow-up, cognitive control training led to more adaptive cognitive emotion regulation (B=−5.18, 95% CI −9.74,–0.41; t180.90=−2.16; P=.03; d=−0.40, 95% CI −0.75,−0.03), and less social anxiety (B=2.00, 95% CI 0.14, 3.81; t43.43=2.08; P=.04; d=0.66, 95% CI 0.05, 1.24). The groups did not differ in any other outcome at any point in time.ConclusionsThis study is the first to assess the efficacy of a mobile cognitive control training using the PASAT in a transdiagnostic outpatient sample. There was no evidence for the training’s efficacy on global mental distress and only weak evidence for the superiority in measures of emotion regulation and anxiety at follow-ups. Potential mediating pathways and moderating factors, such as the number of training sessions, should be investigated in larger studies.

Cognitive control processes are advantageous when routines would not lead to the desired outcome, but this can be ill-advised when automated behavior is advantageous. The aim of this study was to identify neural dynamics related to the ability to adapt to different cognitive control demands – a process that has been referred to as ‘metacontrol.’ A sample of N = 227 healthy subjects that was split in a ‘high’ and ‘low adaptability’ group based on the behavioral performance in a task with varying control demands. To examine the neurophysiological mechanisms, we combined event-related potential (ERP) recordings with source localization and machine learning approaches. The results show that individuals who are better at strategically adapting to different cognitive control demands benefit from automatizing their response processes in situations where little cognitive control is needed. On a neurophysiological level, neither perceptual/attentional selection processes nor conflict monitoring processes paralleled the behavioral data, although the latter showed a descriptive trend. Behavioral differences in metacontrol abilities were only significantly mirrored by the modulation of response-locked P3 amplitudes, which were accompanied by activation differences in insula (BA13) and middle frontal gyrus (BA9). The machine learning result corroborated this by identifying a predictive/classification feature near the peak of the response-locked P3, which arose from the anterior cingulate cortex (BA24; BA33). In short, we found that metacontrol is associated to the ability to manage response selection processes, especially the ability to effectively downregulate cognitive control under low cognitive control requirements, rather than the ability to upregulate cognitive control.

Attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) can be identified in the preschool years, but little is known about the correlates of ADHD symptoms in preschool children. Research to date suggests that factors such as temperament, personality, and neuropsychological functioning may be important in understanding the development of early ADHD symptomatology. The current study sought to extend this research by examining how cognitive and reactive control processes predict ADHD symptoms. Data were drawn from a larger study that measured the cognitive, social, and emotional functioning of preschool children. Eighty-seven children (aged 4–6 years) were evaluated using teacher report and laboratory task measures relevant to cognitive control (i.e., conscientiousness, working memory) and reactive control (i.e., neuroticism, delay of gratification) processes. In multiple regression analyses, cognitive control variables added unique variance in the prediction of both inattention and hyperactivity, but only reactive control variables added unique variance in the prediction of hyperactivity. The current findings align with past research suggesting that cognitive control processes (e.g., conscientiousness) are related to both inattention and hyperactivity/impulsivity, while reactive control processes (e.g., neuroticism) are more strongly related to hyperactivity/impulsivity in preschool children. Future longitudinal research utilizing various methods and measures is needed to understand how cognitive and reactive control processes contribute to ADHD symptom development.

Deficits in cognitive control processes are a primary characteristic of nicotine addiction. However, while network-based connectivity measures of dysfunction have frequently been observed, empirical evidence of task-based dysfunction in these processes has been inconsistent. Here, in a sample of smokers (n=35) and non-smokers (n=21), a previously validated parametric flanker task is employed to characterize addiction-related alterations in responses to varying (ie, high, intermediate, and low) demands for cognitive control. This approach yields a demand-response curve that aims to characterize potential non-linear responses to increased demand for control, including insensitivities or lags in fully activating the cognitive control network. We further used task-based differences in activation between groups as seeds for resting-state analysis of network dysfunction in an effort to more closely link prior inconsistencies in task-related activation with evidence of impaired network connectivity in smokers. For both smokers and non-smokers, neuroimaging results showed similar increases in activation in brain areas associated with cognitive control. However, reduced activation in right insula was seen only in smokers and only when processing intermediate demand for cognitive control. Further, in smokers, this task-modulated right insula showed weaker functional connectivity with the superior frontal gyrus, a component of the task-positive executive control network. These results demonstrate that the neural instantiation of salience attribution in smokers is both more effortful to fully activate and has more difficulty communicating with the exogenous, task-positive, executive control network. Together, these findings further articulate the cognitive control dysfunction associated with smoking and illustrate a specific brain circuit potentially responsible.

Goal-directed behavior can benefit from proactive adjustments of cognitive control that occur in anticipation of forthcoming cognitive control demands (CCD). Predictions of forthcoming CCD are thought to depend on learning and memory in two ways: First, through direct experience, associative encoding may link previously experienced CCD to its triggering item, such that subsequent encounters with the item serve to cue retrieval of (i.e., predict) the associated CCD. Second, in the absence of direct experience, pattern completion and mnemonic integration mechanisms may allow CCD to be generalized from its associated item to other items related in memory. While extant behavioral evidence documents both types of CCD prediction, the neurocognitive mechanisms giving rise to these predictions remain largely unexplored. Here, we tested two hypotheses: (1) memory-guided predictions about CCD precede control adjustments due to the actual CCD required; and (2) generalization of CCD can be accomplished through integration mechanisms that link partially overlapping CCD-item and item-item associations in memory. Supporting these hypotheses, the temporal dynamics of theta and alpha power in human electroencephalography data (n = 43, 26 females) revealed that an associative CCD effect emerges earlier than interaction effects involving actual CCD. Furthermore, generalization of CCD from one item (X) to another item (Y) was predicted by a decrease in alpha power following the presentation of the X-Y pair. These findings advance understanding of the mechanisms underlying memory-guided adjustments of cognitive control.SIGNIFICANCE STATEMENT Cognitive control adaptively regulates information processing to align with task goals. Experience-based expectations enable adjustments of control, leading to improved performance when expectations match the actual control demand required. Using EEG, we demonstrate that memory for past cognitive control demand proactively guides the allocation of cognitive control, preceding adjustments of control triggered by the demands of the present environment. Furthermore, we demonstrate that learned cognitive control demands can be generalized through mnemonic integration processes, enabling the spread of expectations about cognitive control demands to items associated in memory. We reveal that this generalization is linked to decreased alpha oscillation in medial frontal channels. Collectively, these findings provide new insights into how memory-control interactions facilitate goal-directed behavior.

Higher cognitive functioning is supported by adaptive reconfiguration of large-scale functional brain networks. Cognitive control (CC), which plays a vital role in flexibly guiding cognition and behavior in accordance with our goals, supports a range of executive functions via distributed brain networks. These networks process information dynamically and can be represented as functional connectivity changes between network elements. Using graph theory, we explored context-dependent network reorganization in 56 healthy adults performing fMRI tasks from two cognitive domains that varied in CC and episodic-memory demands. We examined whole-brain modular structure during the DPX task, which engages proactive CC in the frontal-parietal cognitive-control network (FPN), and the RiSE task, which manipulates CC demands at encoding and retrieval during episodic-memory processing, and engages FPN, the medial-temporal lobe and other memory-related networks in a context dependent manner. Analyses revealed different levels of network integration and segregation. Modularity analyses revealed greater brain-wide integration across tasks in high CC conditions compared to low CC conditions. Greater network reorganization occurred in the RiSE memory task, which is thought to require coordination across multiple brain networks, than in the DPX cognitive-control task. Finally, FPN, ventral attention, and visual systems showed within network connectivity effects of cognitive control; however, these cognitive systems displayed varying levels of network reorganization. These findings provide insight into how brain networks reorganize to support differing task contexts, suggesting that the FPN flexibly segregates during focused proactive control and integrates to support control in other domains such as episodic memory.

Background: Lexical access in bilinguals can be influenced by the demands that different interactional contexts pose on cognitive control processes. However, how varying cognitive control demands impact lexical access in bilingual persons with aphasia (BPWA) remains unclear. Verbal fluency tasks may provide valuable insights into the interplay between cognitive control and lexical access in BPWA by addressing word generation abilities in language contexts that exert varying degrees of cognitive control effort. Aims: The present study aimed to examine the performance of BPWA on a semantic category generation task that required word retrieval in single and dual-language contexts under varying cognitive control demands and a traditional letter fluency task conducted in single-language contexts. We also examined the associations between verbal fluency performance and (i) bilingual language history, and (ii) performance on standardized language assessments in both BPWA and healthy bilinguals. Methods and Procedures: Thirteen Spanish-English BPWA and twenty-two Spanish-English healthy bilinguals completed a language use questionnaire, verbal fluency testing and standardized language assessments in each language. The semantic category generation task included four conditions: two conditions examined word retrieval in the first-acquired (L1) and second-acquired language (L2) in single language contexts (No Switch-L1 and No Switch-L2) and two conditions elicited word retrieval in dual-language contexts (Self-Switch and Forced-Switch) with low and high cognitive control demands by allowing or restricting switching across languages. The letter fluency task was administered in single language contexts only (F, A, S for English and P, M, R for Spanish). Verbal fluency performance was compared across conditions and groups using multivariate analyses. Further, correlational analyses were used to examine associations between verbal fluency tasks and bilingual language history, language assessments, and cognitive function. Outcomes and Results: Overall, the healthy bilinguals produced a higher proportion of accurate words in both verbal fluency tasks relative to the BPWA. Results indicate that BPWA were more sensitive to the effects of increased cognitive control on lexical access relative to healthy bilinguals. BPWA and healthy bilinguals’ performance on both verbal fluency tasks was associated with metrics of bilingual language history and standardized language assessments. Additionally, for BPWA, L2 letter fluency performance was associated with cognitive function. Conclusion: Our findings suggest that verbal fluency tasks can help characterize the impact of cognitive control on lexical access in BPWA in single and mixed language contexts with important clinical implications.

Effective connectivity within the frontoparietal control network differentiates cognitive control and working memory

Aim of the studyThe aim of the current study is to test cognitive control models for explaining cognitive dysfunctions in patients with AUD.Subject or material and methods53 participants with AUD undergoing detoxification inpatient treatment were assessed using Brief Assessment of Cognition in Affective disorder battery (BAC-A), Continuous Performance Test – Identical Pair (CPT-IP), and the Stroop test.ResultsA model of patients’ cognitive control dysfunction is developed using principal component analysis. It includes response inhibition and working memory components and explains 87.3% of cognitive control variance. The comparison between “low” and “high” cognitive control groups yielded significant differences in verbal and working memory (p&lt;0.001), processing speed (p=0.006), and emotional processing (p&lt;0.01) tasks. When compared to the normative data, the «low» cognitive control group exhibited deficits in working memory, motor skills, processing speed, planning and decision making, and emotional processing (all at the p&lt;0.001 level). No other significant differences were observed.DiscussionThe cognitive control model, which includes working memory and response inhibition, might be more accurate in explaining cognitive deficits in AUD. The clinically and demographically equal groups differed in cognitive control abilities, motor skills, processing speed and emotional interference control.ConclusionsThis is one the first studies examining cognitive control in Russian patients with AUD. The findings suggest the diversity of premorbid cognitive functioning or differences in vulnerability to neurotoxic effects of alcohol intake among patients with AUD with varying levels of cognitive control.

Dispositional mindfulness is associated with lower levels of perceived stress, with increased emotional regulation and cognitive control proposed as mechanisms underlying these stress-buffering effects of mindfulness. Within aging, these controlled processes represent paradoxically divergent trajectories such that older adults exhibit reduced cognitive control capacities, while emotional regulation abilities are well maintained, and at times enhanced. Our study seeks to examine the role of emotional regulation and cognitive control as possible mediators of the association between mindfulness and perceived stress. In addition, we examined age-related differences in the observed associations among mindfulness, stress, and controlled regulatory behavior. Fifty older adults and fifty young adults were recruited for the study and completed self-report measures assessing mindfulness disposition, perceived stress, and emotional regulation. In addition, computerized measures of cognitive control assessing working memory, inhibitory control, and set-shifting were also administered. We hypothesized a negative correlation between mindfulness disposition and perceived stress such that participants reporting higher levels of dispositional mindfulness would report lower stress. In addition, we hypothesized increased difficulties in emotion regulation and lower cognitive control to mediate this relationship. Corroborating previous literature, results revealed that mindfulness disposition and perceived stress were negatively correlated in both groups. However, emotion regulation, but not cognitive control, was found to mediate the relationship between mindfulness and perceived stress in both groups. Age group was not found to moderate the observed effects. Our findings reveal the role of enhanced emotional regulation abilities as a potential factor associated with the stress-reducing capacity of dispositional mindfulness.

Critical changes in adolescence involve brain cognitive maturation of inhibitory control processes that are essential for a myriad of adult functions. Cognitive control advances into adulthood as there is more flexible integration of component processes, including inhibitory control of conflicting information, overwriting inappropriate response tendencies, and amplifying relevant responses for accurate execution. Using a modified Stroop task with fMRI, we investigated the effects of age, sex, and puberty on brain functional correlates of cognitive and motor control in 87 boys and 91 girls across the adolescent age range. Results revealed dissociable brain systems for cognitive and motor control processes, whereby adolescents flexibly adapted neural responses to control demands. Specifically, when response repetitions facilitated planning-based action selection, frontoparietal-insular regions associated with cognitive control operations were less activated, whereas cortical-pallidal-cerebellar motor regions associated with motor skill acquisition, were more activated. Attenuated middle cingulate cortex activation occurred with older adolescent age for both motor control and cognitive control with automaticity from repetition learning. Sexual dimorphism for control operations occurred in extrastriate cortices involved in visuo-attentional selection: While boys enhanced extrastriate selection processes for motor control, girls activated these regions more for cognitive control. These sex differences were attenuated with more advanced pubertal stage. Together, our findings show that brain cognitive and motor control processes are segregated, demand-specific, more efficient in older adolescents, and differ between sexes relative to pubertal development. Our findings advance our understanding of how distributed brain activity and the neurodevelopment of automaticity enhances cognitive and motor control ability in adolescence.

People living with Human Immunodeficiency Virus (PLHIV) have been reported to show poor facial emotion recognition. However, these studies presented participants with facial emotion photographs whereas in real life facial emotion recognition hardly involves inferring emotions from static faces. Moreover, emotion recognition from other sensory modalities, such as auditory, has hardly been explored. There’s also a dearth of studies examining emotion regulation difficulties in this group. The present study, thus, explored facial (using facial emotion videos) and auditory emotion recognition as well as difficulties in emotion regulation (using the Hindi version of Difficulties in Emotion Regulation Scale) in 60 PLHIV and 60 people without HIV (PWoHIV). Additionally, the association of HIV duration (duration since diagnosis of HIV), viral load, and Clusters of differentiation 4 (CD4) count with emotion recognition and regulation difficulties in PLHIV was explored. Findings from one-way ANCOVA (with education and socioeconomic status as covariates) revealed significantly impaired auditory emotion recognition (particularly for fear) among PLHIV than PWoHIV. The former also showed significantly poorer facial emotion recognition for surprise. PLHIV also self-reported significantly more emotion regulation difficulties than PWoHIV, specifically Nonacceptance of their response to negative emotions and limited access to emotion regulation Strategies. CD4 count was negatively correlated with emotion regulation difficulties, particularly for accomplishing goal-directed behaviour when experiencing negative emotions (Goals) and Strategies. Besides the novel addition to the literature regarding impaired auditory emotion recognition in PLHIV, these findings can help develop targeted interventions to improve emotion recognition and emotion regulation for PLHIV.

This exploratory study compared juveniles who sexually offend to nonoffending juveniles in their capacities to behaviorally and neurologically regulate, or reappraise, negative emotions. Participants were 39 juvenile males, including 10 healthy, nonoffending control subjects and 29 juveniles who sexually offend, comprising 12 juveniles who sexually offend with history of child sexual abuse. Participants completed a clinical assessment and a reappraisal task during functional magnetic resonance imaging. Difficulties in Emotional Regulation Scale results showed significantly less difficulties in emotion regulation among controls compared to juveniles who sexually offend, but when self-rating reappraisal abilities during the functional magnetic resonance imaging, all groups obtained comparable results. The imaging results showed no significant differences in fronto-temporal regions between controls and juveniles who sexually offend. Differences were found in other regions indicated in cognitive control, working memory, and emotional processing between controls and juveniles who sexually offend as well as between juveniles who sexually offend and those without history of child sexual abuse. Findings suggest that juveniles who sexually offend are capable of emotion regulation.