Department of Psychology, Washington University in St. Louis, St. Louis, Missouri, United States of America.
PLoS One. 2011 Mar 9;6(3):e17635. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0017635.
Neural systems underlying conflict processing have been well studied in the cognitive realm, but the extent to which these overlap with those underlying emotional conflict processing remains unclear. A novel adaptation of the AX Continuous Performance Task (AX-CPT), a stimulus-response incompatibility paradigm, was examined that permits close comparison of emotional and cognitive conflict conditions, through the use of affectively-valenced facial expressions as the response modality.
METHODOLOGY/PRINCIPAL FINDINGS: Brain activity was monitored with functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) during performance of the emotional AX-CPT. Emotional conflict was manipulated on a trial-by-trial basis, by requiring contextually pre-cued facial expressions to emotional probe stimuli (IAPS images) that were either affectively compatible (low-conflict) or incompatible (high-conflict). The emotion condition was contrasted against a matched cognitive condition that was identical in all respects, except that probe stimuli were emotionally neutral. Components of the brain cognitive control network, including dorsal anterior cingulate cortex (ACC) and lateral prefrontal cortex (PFC), showed conflict-related activation increases in both conditions, but with higher activity during emotion conditions. In contrast, emotion conflict effects were not found in regions associated with affective processing, such as rostral ACC.
CONCLUSIONS/SIGNIFICANCE: These activation patterns provide evidence for a domain-general neural system that is active for both emotional and cognitive conflict processing. In line with previous behavioural evidence, greatest activity in these brain regions occurred when both emotional and cognitive influences additively combined to produce increased interference.
在认知领域，人们已经对冲突处理的神经机制进行了深入研究，但这些机制与情感冲突处理的重叠程度尚不清楚。本研究采用 AX 连续表现任务（AX-CPT）的新适应方法，该方法是一种刺激-反应不兼容范式，可以通过使用情感效价的面部表情作为反应模式，对情感和认知冲突条件进行密切比较。
方法/主要发现：通过功能磁共振成像（fMRI）监测参与者在完成情感 AX-CPT 时的大脑活动。在逐次试验的基础上，通过要求上下文预先提示的面部表情对情绪探测刺激（IAPS 图像）做出反应，来操纵情绪冲突，这些探测刺激要么是情感相容的（低冲突），要么是情感不相容的（高冲突）。将情绪条件与匹配的认知条件进行对比，认知条件在各方面都相同，只是探测刺激是中性情绪的。大脑认知控制网络的组成部分，包括背侧前扣带皮层（ACC）和外侧前额叶皮层（PFC），在两种条件下都显示出与冲突相关的激活增加，但在情绪条件下的活性更高。相比之下，在与情感处理相关的区域（如前扣带皮层的头侧部分）没有发现情感冲突效应。
结论/意义：这些激活模式为一个既适用于情感冲突处理又适用于认知冲突处理的、具有一般性的神经机制提供了证据。与之前的行为证据一致，当情感和认知的影响相加产生增加的干扰时，这些大脑区域的活性最大。
