Fröber Kerstin, Stürmer Birgit, Frömer Romy, Dreisbach Gesine
University of Regensburg, Department of Psychology, Universitätsstraße 31, 93053 Regensburg, Germany.
International Psychoanalytic University, Stromstraße 1, 10555 Berlin, Germany.
Brain Cogn. 2017 Aug;116:9-16. doi: 10.1016/j.bandc.2017.05.003. Epub 2017 May 29.
Conflict between incompatible response tendencies is typically followed by control adjustments aimed at diminishing subsequent conflicts, a phenomenon often called conflict adaptation. Dreisbach and Fischer (2015, 2016) recently proposed that it is not the conflict per se but the aversive quality of a conflict that originally motivates this kind of sequential control adjustment. With the present study we tested the causal role of aversive signals in conflict adaptation in a more direct way. To this end, after each trial of a vertical Simon task participants rated whether they experienced the last trial as rather pleasant or unpleasant. Conflict adaptation was measured via lateralized readiness potentials as a measure of early motor-related activation that were computed on the basis of event-related brain potentials. Results showed the typical suppression of automatic response activation following trials rated as unpleasant, whereas suppression was relaxed following trials rated as pleasant. That is, sequential control adaptation was not based on previous conflict but on the subjective affective experience. This is taken as evidence that negative affect even in the absence of actual conflict triggers subsequent control adjustments.
不相容反应倾向之间的冲突通常会伴随着旨在减少后续冲突的控制调整，这一现象通常被称为冲突适应。德雷斯巴赫和菲舍尔（2015年、2016年）最近提出，最初促使这种顺序控制调整的并非冲突本身，而是冲突的厌恶性质。在本研究中，我们以更直接的方式测试了厌恶信号在冲突适应中的因果作用。为此，在垂直西蒙任务的每次试验后，参与者对他们是否觉得上一次试验相当愉快或不愉快进行评分。冲突适应通过侧化准备电位来衡量，侧化准备电位是基于事件相关脑电位计算得出的早期运动相关激活的一种测量指标。结果显示，在被评为不愉快的试验后，自动反应激活出现了典型的抑制，而在被评为愉快的试验后，抑制则有所缓解。也就是说，顺序控制适应并非基于先前的冲突，而是基于主观情感体验。这被视为即使在没有实际冲突的情况下，负面情绪也会引发后续控制调整的证据。
