Emotional Distractors Research Articles

Enhancing Chinese preschoolers' executive function via mindfulness training: An fNIRS study.

Mindfulness training has been found to enable cognitive and emotional awareness and diminish emotional distraction and cognitive rigidity. However, the existing intervention studies have largely focused on school children, adolescents, and adults, leaving young children unexplored. This study examined the influence of mindfulness training on young children using the one-group pretest-posttest design. Altogether 31 Chinese preschoolers (Mage = 67.03 months, SD = 4.25) enrolled in a 5-week, twice-per-week mindfulness training. Their cognitive shifting, inhibitory control, and working memory were examined using a battery of executive function tasks. And their brain activations in the region of interest during the tasks were measured using fNIRS before and after the intervention. Results showed that their cognitive shifting and working memory tasks performance significantly improved, and their activation in the DLPFC significantly changed. Implications for this study were also included.

Supplemental Material for Emotional Distraction and Facilitation Across Sense and Time

Supplemental Material for Emotional Distraction and Facilitation Across Sense and Time

"Emotional distractor images disrupt target processing in a graded manner": Correction.

Reports an error in "Emotional distractor images disrupt target processing in a graded manner" by Jonathan M. Keefe and David H. Zald (Emotion, Advanced Online Publication, Aug 27, 2020, np). In the article "Emotional Distractor Images Disrupt Target Processing in a Graded Manner" by Jonathan M. Keefe and David H. Zald (Emotion, advance online publication, August 27, 2020, https://doi.org/10.1037/emo0000893), there were errors in the reporting of nonresponse rate and accuracy data. Nonresponse rate was underreported for the data in the Lag 2 condition, resulting in incorrect analysis of variance values for this portion of the Results section as well as incorrect Lag 2 t-test values in Table 1 and incorrect Lag 2 values in Figure 2A. Additionally, error bars for the accuracy data in Figure 2B were mistakenly calculated with data including excluded trials, resulting in larger estimates of standard error of the mean. These corrections do not affect the interpretation of any inferential statistics and in fact increased the effect of lag and distractor valence upon both of these measures. Therefore, no conclusions of the study are altered. All versions of this article have been corrected. (The following abstract of the original article appeared in record 2020-63434-001). The emotional attentional blink (EAB), also referred to as emotion-induced blindness, refers to a transient impairment in the ability to discriminate a single target when it is presented closely in time to an emotional distractor. Although the EAB has typically been characterized as representing a complete loss of target information due to attentional capture by the emotional distractors, it is unclear whether the impact of the emotional distractor is in fact discrete or graded. Here, we tested whether the emotional distractor of the EAB interfered with target processing in a continuous or all-or-none manner by measuring changes in both reaction time (RT) and target-vividness ratings in addition to target-discrimination accuracy. Rapid sequences of landscape images were presented centrally, and participants reported the orientation of a ± 90° rotated target as quickly and accurately as possible. Replicating the classic EAB phenomenon, we found a strong impairment in target discrimination when an emotional distractor shortly preceded the target, and we also found a moderate impairment when the target preceded an emotional distractor. This decrement in accuracy at short lags was accompanied by increases in RT to the target as well as lower ratings of subjective target vividness even when the target was detected, indicating that emotional distractors impacted target processing in a lag-dependent, graded manner. We argue that these results are consistent with an interactive race model of the competition between stimulus representations in the conflict between top-down and bottom-up attentional mechanisms. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2022 APA, all rights reserved).

Emotional distractor images disrupt target processing in a graded manner.

[Correction Notice: An Erratum for this article was reported online in Emotion on May 16 2022 (see record 2022-64181-001). In the article "Emotional Distractor Images Disrupt Target Processing in a Graded Manner" by Jonathan M. Keefe and David H. Zald (Emotion, advance online publication, August 27, 2020, https://doi.org/10.1037/emo0000893), there were errors in the reporting of nonresponse rate and accuracy data. Nonresponse rate was underreported for the data in the Lag 2 condition, resulting in incorrect analysis of variance values for this portion of the Results section as well as incorrect Lag 2 t-test values in Table 1 and incorrect Lag 2 values in Figure 2A. Additionally, error bars for the accuracy data in Figure 2B were mistakenly calculated with data including excluded trials, resulting in larger estimates of standard error of the mean. These corrections do not affect the interpretation of any inferential statistics and in fact increased the effect of lag and distractor valence upon both of these measures. Therefore, no conclusions of the study are altered. All versions of this article have been corrected.] The emotional attentional blink (EAB), also referred to as emotion-induced blindness, refers to a transient impairment in the ability to discriminate a single target when it is presented closely in time to an emotional distractor. Although the EAB has typically been characterized as representing a complete loss of target information due to attentional capture by the emotional distractors, it is unclear whether the impact of the emotional distractor is in fact discrete or graded. Here, we tested whether the emotional distractor of the EAB interfered with target processing in a continuous or all-or-none manner by measuring changes in both reaction time (RT) and target-vividness ratings in addition to target-discrimination accuracy. Rapid sequences of landscape images were presented centrally, and participants reported the orientation of a ± 90° rotated target as quickly and accurately as possible. Replicating the classic EAB phenomenon, we found a strong impairment in target discrimination when an emotional distractor shortly preceded the target, and we also found a moderate impairment when the target preceded an emotional distractor. This decrement in accuracy at short lags was accompanied by increases in RT to the target as well as lower ratings of subjective target vividness even when the target was detected, indicating that emotional distractors impacted target processing in a lag-dependent, graded manner. We argue that these results are consistent with an interactive race model of the competition between stimulus representations in the conflict between top-down and bottom-up attentional mechanisms. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2022 APA, all rights reserved).

Coping drinking motives, neural functional coupling during emotion processing, and alcohol use in young adults with bipolar disorder.

Rates of alcohol use disorders in individuals with bipolar disorder are 3 to 5 times greater than in the general population and exceed rates of alcohol use disorders reported in other affective and anxiety disorders. Despite this high rate of comorbidity, our understanding of the psychosocial and neural mechanisms that underlie the initiation of alcohol misuse in young adults with bipolar disorder remains limited. Prior work suggests that individuals with bipolar disorder may misuse alcohol as a coping mechanism, yet the neural correlates of coping drinking motives and associated alcohol use have not been previously investigated in this population. Forty-eight young adults (22 bipolar disorder type I, 26 typically developing; 71% women; average age ± standard deviation=22 ± 2 years) completed the Drinking Motives and Daily Drinking Questionnaires, and a Continuous Performance Functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) Task with Emotional and Neutral Distracters. We calculated the relative difference in anterior cingulate cortex (ACC) functional coupling with the anterior insula and amygdala in response to emotional distracters compared with neutral stimuli and investigated the relations with coping drinking motives and alcohol use. Across all participants, coping drinking motives were associated with greater quantity of recent alcohol use. In individuals with bipolar disorder, greater ACC-anterior insula functional coupling was associated with greater coping drinking motives, and greater quantity and frequency of recent alcohol use. The relative difference in ACC-anterior insula functional coupling was not associated with coping drinking motives or alcohol use in the typically developing group. Greater ACC-anterior insula functional coupling in individuals with bipolar disorder was also associated with greater anxiety symptoms and recent perceived psychological stress. Exploratory analyses suggest that the relations between ACC-anterior insula functional coupling and coping drinking motives may be confounded by anticonvulsant use. Results suggest that a difference in ACC-anterior insula functional coupling during emotion processing may underlie alcohol use as a maladaptive coping mechanism in young adults with bipolar disorder.

Severity of childhood maltreatment predicts reaction times and heart rate variability during an emotional working memory task in borderline personality disorder

ABSTRACT Background: Difficulties in emotion regulation are a core symptom of borderline personality disorder (BPD) and often interfere with cognitive functions, such as working memory (WM). Traumatic childhood experiences, including severe maltreatment, can contribute to emotion dysregulation, possibly mediated by changes in high-frequency heart rate variability (HF-HRV). However, it is not yet entirely understood if HF-HRV alterations underlie impaired WM during emotional distraction in BPD and if this is related to traumatic childhood experiences and to comorbid post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). Objective: Our aim was to investigate performance (reaction times, RTs) and HF-HRV during an emotional working memory task (EWMT) in relation to childhood maltreatment severity and comorbid PTSD in BPD. Method: Eighty-one women (n = 28 healthy controls (HC) and n = 53 BPD patients of which n = 18 had comorbid PTSD) performed an adapted Sternberg item recognition WM task with neutral and negative social cues (interpersonal scenes from the International Affective Picture System (IAPS), and neutral, fearful, and angry faces) as distractors. Dependent variables were RTs of correct trials and HF-HRV. Childhood maltreatment was assessed with the Childhood Trauma Questionnaire. Results: Compared to healthy participants, patients with BPD showed prolonged RTs across all distractor conditions with social cues, regardless of their emotional valence. Patients with BPD, especially those with PTSD, demonstrated reduced HF-HRV both at rest and during EWMT. Severity of childhood maltreatment predicted longer RTs and lower HF-HRV during the EWMT. Conclusions: Findings suggest that adverse childhood experiences accelerate difficulties in shifting attention away from social information and that these are more pronounced in individuals with BPD. Reduced HF-HRV (low parasympathetic-tonus) may be an important psychophysiological mechanism underlying impaired WM in the presence of distracting social cues in patients with BPD, especially in those with comorbid PTSD. HIGHLIGHTS This study provides evidence that childhood maltreatment experiences are associated with hypersensitivity to social information and reduced high-frequency heart rate variability during a working memory task in borderline personality disorder.

Graph-theoretical insights into the effects of aging on the speech production network.

Speech production relies on the interplay of different brain regions. Healthy aging leads to complex changes in speech processing and production. Here, we investigated how the whole-brain functional connectivity of healthy elderly individuals differs from that of young individuals. In total, 23 young (aged 24.6 ± 2.2 years) and 23 elderly (aged 64.1 ± 6.5 years) individuals performed a picture naming task during functional magnetic resonance imaging. We determined whole-brain functional connectivity matrices and used them to compute group averaged speech production networks. By including an emotionally neutral and an emotionally charged condition in the task, we characterized the speech production network during normal and emotionally challenged processing. Our data suggest that the speech production network of elderly healthy individuals is as efficient as that of young participants, but that it is more functionally segregated and more modularized. By determining key network regions, we showed that although complex network changes take place during healthy aging, the most important network regions remain stable. Furthermore, emotional distraction had a larger influence on the young group's network than on the elderly's. We demonstrated that, from the neural network perspective, elderly individuals have a higher capacity for emotion regulation based on their age-related network re-organization.

Crying does not alleviate acute pain perception: Evidence from an experimental study.

Whereas previous studies revealed positive effects of emotional expressions such as swearing and laughing on acute pain, systematic research on the effects of crying on pain is missing. The rationale for the current study is that either a mere emotional distraction or changes in oxytocin and opioid levels represent a mechanism through which crying modulates pain, with the timing of mood changes as crucial information for distinguishing between potential mechanisms. In two studies, we exposed participants (Study 1: n= 57; Study 2: n= 70) to a sad movie and measured their mood, and exposed them to pain induction procedures (electric shock and cold-pressor test, respectively) before and after the film. Dependent variables were pain threshold, tolerance, and intensity. In addition to baseline and one immediate post-crying mood and pain response measurement in both studies, in Study 2, we repeated these procedures 20 and 50 min later to discern between the potential role of neurobiological substances and distraction. Crying was elicited in 28 participants in Study 1 (49.1%) and 49 (70%) in Study 2. We found no systematic differences in pain and mood changes between criers and non-criers and no systematic dose-response relationship between crying and pain responses and mood. The only significant effects ran contrary to our hypotheses, showing detrimental effects of the occurrence (Study 1) and frequency of crying (both studies) on pain threshold. Results do not support the idea that crying has pain-alleviating effects, either via distraction or direct biological mechanisms. Despite previous findings on pain alleviating effects of emotional expression and the widespread idea about the generally beneficial consequences of emotional crying, research on the possible pain alleviating effects of crying is largely missing. Two quasi-experimental studies demonstrated that crying induced in laboratory conditions does not alleviate acute pain responses, suggesting that role of crying in pain interventions is doubtful. Less directly, results cast light on the role of emotional distraction from acute pain and possible crying-related neurochemical changes.

Suppression of alpha-band power underlies exogenous attention to emotional distractors.

Alpha‐band oscillations (8–14 Hz) are essential for attention and perception processes by facilitating the selection of relevant information. Directing visuospatial endogenous (voluntary) attention to a given location consistently results in a power suppression of alpha activity over occipito‐parietal areas contralateral to the attended visual field. In contrast, the neural oscillatory dynamics underlying the involuntary capture of attention, or exogenous attention, are currently under debate. By exploiting the inherent capacity of emotionally salient visual stimuli to capture attention, we aimed to investigate whether exogenous attention is characterized by either a reduction or an increase in alpha‐band activity. Electroencephalographic activity was recorded while participants completed a Posner visuospatial cueing task, in which a lateralized image with either positive, negative, or neutral emotional content competed with a target stimulus presented in the opposite hemifield. Compared with trials with no distractors, alpha power was reduced over occipital regions contralateral to distracting images. This reduction of alpha activity turned out to be functionally relevant, as it correlated with impaired behavioral performance on the ongoing task and was enhanced for distractors with negative valence. Taken together, our results demonstrate that visuospatial exogenous attention is characterized by a suppression of alpha‐band activity contralateral to distractor location, similar to the oscillatory underpinnings of endogenous attention. Further, these results highlight the key role of exogenous attention as an adaptive mechanism for the efficient detection of biologically salient stimuli.

Automatic processing of emotional images and psychopathic personality traits

ABSTRACT Psychopathy is associated with a deficit in affective processes and might be reflected in the inability to extract the emotional content of a stimulus. Across two experiments, we measured the interference effect from emotional images that were irrelevant to the processing of simultaneous target stimuli and examined if this interference was moderated by psychometrically defined traits of psychopathy. In Experiment 1, we showed this emotional distraction effect was reduced as a function of psychopathic traits related to cold-heartedness and occurred for both positively- and negatively-valenced images. Experiment 2 attempted to test the automaticity of the effects by presenting the emotional stimuli briefly so that the emotion was difficult to report. Again, high visibility images produced strong effects that were moderated by the cold-heatedness/meanness traits of psychopathy, but the low-visibility images did not evoke the emotional distractor effect. Our results strongly support the notion that psychopathic traits related to cold-heartedness/meanness are associated with an inability to automatically process the emotional content of images.

Interaction between working memory load and the ability to resist interference from negative distractors in dysphoria.

Although the relationship between emotional working memory (WM) and depressive symptoms has been well established in clinical samples, research in the subclinical population has produced mixed results. The present study tested the effect of WM load on control of interference from emotional (positive, negative, neutral) distractors in dysphoria. Dysphoric (n=32) and non-dysphoric (n=35) university students were administered the emotional 2-back (lower WM load) and 3-back (higher WM load) tasks. Results showed that resisting negative distractors was more difficult for the dysphoric group than the non-dysphoric group, but only in the 3-back task. The results demonstrate that dysphoria is associated with greater interference from negative distractors under high WM load. We conclude that both WM load and emotional valence have an effect on WM performance in dysphoria, and the poor ability to resist interference from negative distractors in WM might be a key cognitive vulnerability factor for depression.

Normalization of impaired emotion inhibition in bipolar disorder mediated by cholinergic neurotransmission in the cingulate cortex

The muscarinic-cholinergic system is involved in the pathophysiology of bipolar disorder (BD), and contributes to attention and the top-down and bottom-up cognitive and affective mechanisms of emotional processing, functionally altered in BD. Emotion processing can be assessed by the ability to inhibit a response when the content of the image is emotional. Impaired regulatory capacity of cholinergic neurotransmission conferred by reduced M2-autoreceptor availability is hypothesized to play a role in elevated salience of negative emotional distractors in euthymic BD relative to individuals with no history of mood instability. Thirty-three euthymic BD type-I (DSM-V-TR) and 50 psychiatrically-healthy controls underwent functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) and an emotion-inhibition paradigm before and after intravenous cholinergic challenge using the acetylcholinesterase inhibitor, physostigmine (1 mg), or placebo. Mood, accuracy, and reaction time on either recognizing or inhibiting a response associated with an image involving emotion and regional functional activation were examined for effects of cholinergic challenge physostigmine relative to placebo, prioritizing any interaction with the diagnostic group. Analyses revealed that (1) at baseline, impaired behavioral performance was associated with lower activation in the anterior cingulate cortex in BD relative to controls during emotion processing; (2) physostigmine (vs. placebo) affected behavioral performance during the inhibition of negative emotions, without altering mood, and increased activation in the posterior cingulate cortex in BD (vs. controls); (3) In BD, lower accuracy observed during emotion inhibition of negative emotions was remediated by physostigmine and was associated with cingulate cortex overactivation. Our findings implicate abnormal regulation of cholinergic neurotransmission in the cingulate cortices in BD, which may mediate exaggerated emotional salience processing, a core feature of BD.

Stimulus novelty and emotionality interact in the processing of visual distractors

Novel distractors are prioritized for attentional selection. When distractors also convey emotional content, they divert attention from the primary task more than neutral stimuli do. In the present study, while participants were engaged in a central task, we examined the impact of peripheral distractors that varied for emotional content and novelty. Results showed that emotional interference on reaction times completely habituated with repetition and promptly recovered with novelty. The enhanced LPP for emotional pictures was attenuated by repetitions and, interestingly, stimulus novelty only affected emotional, but not neutral distractors, in both the RTs and LPP. Alpha-ERD was similarly reduced for repeated emotional and neutral distractors. Altogether, these findings suggest that the impact of peripheral distractors can be attenuated through a non-strategic learning mechanism mediated by mere stimulus repetition, which is fine-tuned to detect changes in emotional distractors only, supporting the hypothesis that novelty and emotion share the same motivational circuits.

Nx4 Reduced Susceptibility to Distraction in an Attention Modulation Task.

Background: Stress adversely affects the attentional focus, the active concentration on stimuli, and increases susceptibility to distraction. To experimentally explore the susceptibility to distraction, the Attention Modulation by Salience Task (AMST) is a validated paradigm measuring reaction times (RT) for processing auditory information while presenting task-irrelevant visual distractors of high or low salience. We extended the AMST by an emotional dimension of distractors and an EEG-based evaluation. We then investigated the effect of the stress-relieving medication Neurexan (Nx4) on the participants' susceptibility to distraction.Methods: Data from a randomized, placebo-controlled, crossover trial (NEURIM study; ClinicalTrials.gov: NCT02602275) were exploratively reanalyzed post-hoc. In this trial, 39 participants received a single dose of placebo or Nx4 immediately before the AMST. Participants had to discriminate two different tone modulations (ascending or descending) while simultaneously perceiving task-irrelevant pictures of different salience (high or low) or valence (negative or positive) as distractors. Using EEG recordings, RT and the event-related potential (ERP) components N1, N2, and N3 were analyzed as markers for susceptibility to distraction.Results: In the placebo condition, we could replicate the previously reported task effects of salient distractors with longer RT for high salient distractors on the behavioral level. On the electrophysiological level, we observed significantly increased amplitudes of the N2 and N3 ERP components for positive emotional pictures. In terms of drug effect, we found evidence that Nx4 reduced distractibility by emotional distractors. The effect was shown by significantly reduced amplitudes of N2 and N3 ERP components and reduced RT for the positive valence domain under Nx4 compared to placebo. The Nx4 effects on RT and ERP components also showed a significant correlation.Conclusion: Emotional distractors in addition to the previously used salience distractors and the EEG based evaluation of ERPs valuably complement the AMST. Salient distractors were affecting attentional processes earlier, while valent distractors show modulatory effects later. Our results suggest that Nx4 has beneficial effects on attention by inhibiting the effect of task-irrelevant information and reducing susceptibility to emotionally distracting stimuli. The observation of a beneficial impact of Nx4 on attention regulation is supportive of Nx4's claim as a stress-relieving medication.

Deactivation of the attention-shifting ventromedial prefrontal cortex during the encoding and hold phases predicts working memory performance.

Recent neuroimaging studies have suggested that the deactivation of the ventromedial prefrontal cortex (VMPFC) works with the attention shifting area to facilitate the encoding of behaviorally relevant inputs. These findings have led to the notion that the deactivation of VMPFC substantially contributes to the cognitive control of emotions. Although VMPFC deactivation during working memory tasks is established, whether it contributes to performance in emotionally distracted working memory tasks remains unclear. This study aimed to investigate whether the magnitude of VMPFC deactivation predicts better performance in emotionally distracted working memory tasks. Twenty-nine female participants performed delayed-response working memory tasks with emotional distracters presented during the hold phase of working memory while undergoing functional MRI. A GLM and a paired t-test were used to observe brain responses to emotional distracters. The correlation between brain response and working memory performance was also computed to investigate brain areas that predict working memory performance in emotionally distracted tasks. Three trends in brain activity were strongly correlated with high working memory performance: (1) increased activity in cognitive control areas (dorsolateral prefrontal cortex), (2) lower activity in emotional reactivity areas (fusiform gyrus), and (3) deactivation of the attention shifting area, mainly VMPFC. In addition, all three trends correlated with high working memory performance during the hold phase of working memory, whereas only (2) and (3) correlated with high working memory performance during the encoding phase. These results provide further evidence of the functional importance of VMPFC and demonstrate that VMPFC deactivation is particularly important during the encoding and hold phases of working memory.

Limitations of cognitive control on emotional distraction \u2013 Congruency in the Color Stroop task does not modulate the Emotional Stroop effect

Emotional information receives prioritized processing over concurrent cognitive processes. This can lead to distraction if emotional information has to be ignored. In the cognitive domain, mechanisms have been described that allow control of (cognitive) distractions. However, whether similar cognitive control mechanisms also can attenuate emotional distraction is an active area of research. This study asked whether cognitive control (triggered in the Color Stroop task) attenuates emotional distraction in the Emotional Stroop task. Theoretical accounts of cognitive control, and the Emotional Stroop task alike, predict such an interaction for tasks that employ the same relevant (e.g., color-naming) and irrelevant (e.g., word-reading) dimension. In an alternating-runs design with Color and Emotional Stroop tasks changing from trial to trial, we analyzed the impact of proactive and reactive cognitive control on Emotional Stroop effects. Four experiments manipulated predictability of congruency and emotional stimuli. Overall, results showed congruency effects in Color Stroop tasks and Emotional Stroop effects. Moreover, we found a spillover of congruency effects and emotional distraction to the other task, indicating that processes specific to one task impacted to the other task. However, Bayesian analyses and a mini-meta-analysis across experiments weigh against the predicted interaction between cognitive control and emotional distraction. The results point out limitations of cognitive control to block off emotional distraction, questioning views that assume a close interaction between cognitive control and emotional processing.

Emotional Distraction by Constant Finger Tapping

Abstract. This study examined the effects of emotional distraction in the context of recalling stressful interpersonal events in daily life. Previous studies have revealed that distraction decreases unpleasant emotions. In this study, we examined whether distraction tasks decrease unpleasant task-related thoughts in addition to unpleasant emotions. Furthermore, to investigate the implicit effects of emotional changes, we examined changes in pupil size in relation to unpleasant emotions and task-unrelated thoughts (TUT). The behavioral tasks were administered to 21 university students ( Mage = 21.24 ± 2.93 years; range: 18–30 years). After excluding participants for poor data quality, 16 (21.31 ± 3.34 years; 18–30 years) were included for further pupil data analysis. As an emotion induction procedure, participants were asked to freely recall memories of stressful interpersonal events in their daily lives and were given a series of questions about their recalled memories, which were presented on the monitor. In the following distraction experiment, questions during the emotion induction procedure were represented as emotional stimulation; a distraction task (non-constant or constant finger tapping) or rest condition was then performed; subsequently, ratings were given for attentional state, thought types conceived during the tasks, and emotional state. Upon analysis, differences in the ratings for unpleasant emotion and TUT were non-significant between all conditions. Nevertheless, pupil dilation in the non-constant and constant conditions was associated with decreased unpleasant emotions ( p < .05; p < .05 to .01). More importantly, pupil dilation was associated with decreased unpleasant TUT ( p < .05) only in the constant condition. Although the observed effects were subtle, we found that constant finger tapping decreased unpleasant emotions and TUT. It is expected for a future emotion regulation study to further investigate the effects in the relationships among emotions, thoughts, and physiological states, which can help in coping with unpleasant emotions.

Sense and timing: Localizing objects during emotional distraction.

There is substantial evidence demonstrating that emotional information influences perception. Yet across studies, findings of how it does so have been highly inconsistent. In particular, emotional context (task-unrelated emotional information in the environment) has a variable influence on spatial perceptual accuracy, sometimes improving and sometimes impairing the ability to localize objects. Here, we tested the hypothesis that the heterogenous nature of emotional influences on target localization is influenced by the specific combination of sensory modalities used in the task. In the present series of experiments, we used a cross-modal localization task to identify how emotional context influences the accuracy of spatial perception. By presenting nonemotional target stimuli alongside emotional nonspatial distractor items (facial expressions or vocalizations), we were able to systematically investigate how emotional stimuli presented to individual sensory modalities acted to modulate spatial perception at distinct stages of perception and action. In three separate experiments, distractor items were presented prior to or during target presentation or after presentation during the localization response. Intramodal emotional distractors influenced localization accuracy when they overlapped in timing with targets, and the direction of this effect was both modality and valence specific (Experiment I). Additionally, targeted contrasts revealed that auditory but not visual emotional distractors influenced localization of visual targets when presented during the behavioral response, with negative cues improving localization accuracy compared to neutral or positive cues (Experiment II). We suggest such effects reflect distinct patterns of unimodal versus multimodal processing in brain regions involved in early versus late stages of perceptual processing. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2021 APA, all rights reserved).

P 59. Real-time prefrontal beta phase estimation during emotional interference inhibition

Previous studies suggest a common brain network including the right inferior frontal gyrus and pre-supplementary motor area integral to various types of emotional interference inhibition, i.e. suppression of task-irrelevant stimuli to pursue goal-directed behavior in the context of emotional distraction. This network reacts differently to emotional interference in individual subjects and exhibits a specific spectral signature in the beta-band. Here we analyze 64 channel surface EEG data during emotional interference inhibition operationalized by a Flanker task with preceding emotionally salient stimuli to determine “true phase” estimates and perform real-time (predictive) phase estimation of task-related beta-band oscillations. EEG data was spectrally analyzed, signal-to-noise ratios (SNRs) of periodic components of the power spectra calculated, and non-causal phase estimations (i.e. using data extending both directions around the time point of interest) performed to yield “true phase” estimates of task-related beta oscillations after Flanker signal presentation. Causal phase estimation of task-related EEG beta oscillations was achieved using an autoregressive forward prediction algorithm on data preceding the time point of interest only. Results show that real-time (i.e. causal) phase estimation of beta oscillations in the emotional Flanker task is feasible with satisfactory circular deviations of “true phase” estimates, but needs individual optimization of phase estimation parameters (i.e. window size [samples], FIR filter order, number of samples removed at data window edge, order of the autoregressive model). Findings have implications for the design of real-time EEG-triggered brain oscillation-synchronized TMS experiments to causally study the role of task-related beta-band activity for emotional interference inhibition. This study was supported by the Boehringer Ingelheim Foundation.“

The Inhibitory Effect of Emotional Conflict Control on Memory Retrieval

Evidence is mounting that emotional conflict is mainly resolved by the rostral anterior cingulate inhibiting the processing of emotional distractors. However, this theory has not been verified from the perspective of memory retrieval. This experiment aimed to explore the offline effect of emotional conflict processing on memory retrieval. We adopted a modified encoding-retrieval paradigm to explore this issue. Participants’ electroencephalography (EEG) signal were also collected. A face-word Stroop task was used to create the congruency factor. In addition, an old/new judgment task was used to evaluate the recognition performance. During the retrieval phase, the response time of the incongruent condition was longer and the recognition accuracy was lower compared with congruent and neutral conditions in the behavioral data. For event-related potentials (ERP), we detected two well-established old/new effects related to memory retrieval under both neutral and emotional conditions: the frontal negativity (FN400) related to familiarity-driven recognition and the late posterior negativity (LPN) related to reconstructive processing or evaluation of retrieval outcomes. More importantly, the old/new effects were missing for incongruent condition during the early stage of FN400 (300–400 ms). Besides, for LPN (700–900 ms), the old/new effects of the incongruent condition are greater than the congruent condition. The results prove that the encoding phase's emotional congruency factor has a regulatory effect on the retrieval phase's early familiarity processing and evaluation of retrieval outcomes. Our data confirm the inhibitory effect of emotional conflict control on memory retrieval and support the emotional conflict control mechanism found in previous studies.