Cohen Alexandra O, Dellarco Danielle V, Breiner Kaitlyn, Helion Chelsea, Heller Aaron S, Rahdar Ahrareh, Pedersen Gloria, Chein Jason, Dyke Jonathan P, Galvan Adriana, Casey B J
Weill Cornell Medical College.
University of California, Los Angeles.
J Cogn Neurosci. 2016 Mar;28(3):446-59. doi: 10.1162/jocn_a_00906. Epub 2015 Nov 25.
Typically in the laboratory, cognitive and emotional processes are studied separately or as a stream of fleeting emotional stimuli embedded within a cognitive task. Yet in life, thoughts and actions often occur in more lasting emotional states of arousal. The current study examines the impact of emotions on actions using a novel behavioral paradigm and functional neuroimaging to assess cognitive control under sustained states of threat (anticipation of an aversive noise) and excitement (anticipation of winning money). Thirty-eight healthy adult participants were scanned while performing an emotional go/no-go task with positive (happy faces), negative (fearful faces), and neutral (calm faces) emotional cues, under threat or excitement. Cognitive control performance was enhanced during the excited state relative to a nonarousing control condition. This enhanced performance was paralleled by heightened activity of frontoparietal and frontostriatal circuitry. In contrast, under persistent threat, cognitive control was diminished when the valence of the emotional cue conflicted with the emotional state. Successful task performance in this conflicting emotional condition was associated with increased activity in the posterior cingulate cortex, a default mode network region implicated in complex processes such as processing emotions in the context of self and monitoring performance. This region showed positive coupling with frontoparietal circuitry implicated in cognitive control, providing support for a role of the posterior cingulate cortex in mobilizing cognitive resources to improve performance. These findings suggest that emotional states of arousal differentially modulate cognitive control and point to the potential utility of this paradigm for understanding effects of situational and pathological states of arousal on behavior.
通常在实验室中，认知和情感过程是分开研究的，或者是作为嵌入认知任务中的一系列短暂情感刺激来研究。然而在现实生活中，思想和行动往往发生在更持久的情绪唤起状态中。本研究使用一种新颖的行为范式和功能神经成像技术，来检验情绪对行动的影响，以评估在持续的威胁（预期厌恶噪音）和兴奋（预期赢钱）状态下的认知控制。38名健康成年参与者在进行一项带有积极（笑脸）、消极（恐惧脸）和中性（平静脸）情绪线索的情绪停止信号任务时，分别处于威胁或兴奋状态下接受扫描。与非唤起控制条件相比，在兴奋状态下认知控制表现得到增强。这种增强的表现伴随着额顶叶和额纹状体回路活动的增加。相比之下，在持续威胁下，当情绪线索的效价与情绪状态冲突时，认知控制会减弱。在这种冲突的情绪条件下成功完成任务与后扣带回皮质活动增加有关，后扣带回皮质是默认模式网络区域，涉及自我情境下处理情绪和监测表现等复杂过程。该区域与参与认知控制的额顶叶回路呈正耦合，为后扣带回皮质在调动认知资源以提高表现方面的作用提供了支持。这些发现表明，情绪唤起状态对认知控制有不同的调节作用，并指出这种范式在理解情境性和病理性唤起状态对行为的影响方面的潜在效用。
