Graduate School of Environmental Studies, Nagoya University, Furo-cho, Chikusa-ku, Nagoya, Aichi 464-8601, Japan.
Cogn Affect Behav Neurosci. 2011 Dec;11(4):476-84. doi: 10.3758/s13415-011-0045-y.
The successful regulation of emotion relies heavily on executive function. Until very recently, however, the specific effects of executive function activity on other processes havereceived relatively little empirical attention.The link between executive function and emotional responses suggests that the activation of executive function may play an important role in the attenuation of emotional responses. We conducted twoexperiments to test the hypothesis that decrements in emotional responses following cognitive task performance might be caused, at least in part, by the activation of executive function.First, we sought to test whetherthe activation of executive function reducedemotional responsesimplicitly, without any volitional effort.Next, we sought to examine the link between prior activation of executivefunction and the attenuation of subsequent emotional responses, by comparing the effects of an executive-function-demanding task with the effects of a task that is equally effortful but does not engage executive function.We discuss our results in the context of the role of executive function in the attenuation of emotion.
情绪的成功调节在很大程度上依赖于执行功能。然而，直到最近，执行功能活动对其他过程的具体影响才受到相对较少的实证关注。执行功能与情绪反应之间的联系表明，执行功能的激活可能在情绪反应的衰减中发挥重要作用。我们进行了两项实验来检验以下假设：认知任务表现后情绪反应的减少可能至少部分是由于执行功能的激活引起的。首先，我们试图测试执行功能的激活是否会在没有任何意志努力的情况下，潜意识地减少情绪反应。其次，我们通过比较一项需要执行功能的任务和一项同样费力但不涉及执行功能的任务的效果，来研究执行功能先前激活与后续情绪反应衰减之间的联系。我们在执行功能在情绪衰减中的作用的背景下讨论我们的结果。
