Neural substrates of emotional interference: A quantitative EEG study.

Emotional stimuli are known to capture attention and disrupt the executive functioning. However, the dynamic interplay of neural substrates of emotion and executive attentional network is widely unexplored. The present study attempts to elucidate the areas implicated during emotional interference condition. Fifteen right handed individuals [24.64 ± 2.63 years] performed two emotional interference tasks - Face Word Interference and Word Face Interference. Single trial EEG was recorded during baseline (eyes open) and during the tasks. The activity of the cortical sources was compared between the tasks and baseline for 66 gyri using sLORETA software. Eighteen gyri in Face Word Interference and fifty-four gyri in Word Face Interference have shown significantly decreased activity [p < 0.05/66] with respect to baseline respectively. Interestingly, in both the interference tasks, there was disengagement of fronto-parietal attentional networks (implicating the probable ability of emotional stimuli to disrupt cognition) and the areas associated with default mode network. Further, during baseline there was significant activity in premotor cortical areas, which may be due to active inhibition of motor movements associated with response.