Key Laboratory of Cognition and Personality, SWU, Ministry of Education, Chongqing, China and School of Psychology, Southwest University, Chongqing, China.
Scand J Psychol. 2013 Apr;54(2):82-8. doi: 10.1111/sjop.12031. Epub 2013 Feb 8.
There is substantial evidence to indicate that negative emotion can modulate cognitive control processing. However, only a few studies have investigated this effect with positive emotion. Therefore, the present study explored the electrophysiological correlates of the impact of positive emotional stimuli on cognitive control, using event-related potentials (ERPs). Sixteen healthy young adults completed a modified Simon task (Simon, 1969). Behavioral data indicated that reaction times were faster for positive emotional stimuli than for neutral emotional stimuli in the incongruent condition, but not in the congruent condition, which suggested that positive emotion expedited conflict resolution. The ERP data showed that two negative ERP components (N300-400 and N450-550) were associated with the positive emotional stimuli in the incongruent minus congruent condition. It is suggested that these components may respectively be related to the conflict monitoring (N300-400) and response selection (N450-550) stages of cognitive control processing. Overall, our results indicated that positive emotion could facilitate cognitive control processing. These results are in line with the neuropsychological theory, according to which, positive emotion could modulate cognitive control mediated by increased dopamine levels in frontal brain areas.
有大量证据表明，负性情绪可以调节认知控制加工。然而，只有少数研究探讨了正性情绪的这种影响。因此，本研究采用事件相关电位（ERP）探讨了正性情绪刺激对认知控制的影响的电生理相关性。16 名健康的年轻成年人完成了一个改良的西蒙任务（Simon，1969）。行为数据表明，在不一致条件下，正性情绪刺激的反应时间快于中性情绪刺激，但在一致条件下则不然，这表明正性情绪加速了冲突的解决。ERP 数据显示，两个负性 ERP 成分（N300-400 和 N450-550）与不一致条件下的正性情绪刺激有关。这表明这些成分可能分别与冲突监测（N300-400）和反应选择（N450-550）阶段的认知控制加工有关。总体而言，我们的结果表明，正性情绪可以促进认知控制加工。这些结果与神经心理学理论一致，根据该理论，正性情绪可以通过增加额叶脑区的多巴胺水平来调节认知控制。
