Mata-Marín David, Redgrave Peter, Obeso Ignacio
Hospital Universitario HM Puerta del Sur, Spain.
Autonoma de Madrid University-Cajal Institute, Spain.
J Cogn Neurosci. 2023 Nov 1;35(11):1868-1878. doi: 10.1162/jocn_a_02050.
Emotional information prioritizes human behavior. How much emotions influence ongoing behavior critically depends on the extent of executive control functions in a given context. One form of executive control is based on stimulus-stop associations (i.e., habitual inhibition) that rapidly and effortlessly elicits control over the interruption of ongoing behavior. So far, no behavioral accounts have explored the emotional impact on habitual inhibition. We aimed to examine the emotional modulation on habitual inhibition and associated psycho-physiological changes. A go/no-go association task asked participants to learn stimulus-stop and stimulus-response associations during 10-day training to form habitual inhibition (without emotional interference). Probabilistic feedback guided learning with varying probabilities of congruent feedback, generating stronger versus weaker pairings. A reversal test measured habitual inhibition strength counteracted by emotional cues (high-arousal positive and negative stimuli compared with neutral ones). Our training protocol induced stable behavioral and psycho-physiological responses compatible with habitual behavior. At reversal, habitual inhibition was evident as marked by significant speed costs of reversed no-go trials for strongly associated stimuli. Positive and negative emotional cues produced larger impact on habitual inhibition. We report first evidence on a cognitive control mechanism that is vulnerable to emotional stimuli and suggest alternative explanations on how emotions may boost or counteract certain behavioral abnormalities mediated by habitual inhibition.
情绪信息会优先影响人类行为。情绪对正在进行的行为产生多大影响，关键取决于特定情境下执行控制功能的程度。执行控制的一种形式基于刺激 - 停止关联（即习惯性抑制），它能迅速且轻松地引发对正在进行行为中断的控制。到目前为止，尚无行为学研究探讨情绪对习惯性抑制的影响。我们旨在研究情绪对习惯性抑制及相关心理生理变化的调节作用。一项“是/否”关联任务要求参与者在为期10天的训练中学习刺激 - 停止和刺激 - 反应关联，以形成习惯性抑制（无情绪干扰）。概率反馈指导学习，一致性反馈概率不同，从而产生强弱不同的配对。一项反转测试测量了被情绪线索（与中性刺激相比，高唤醒的积极和消极刺激）抵消的习惯性抑制强度。我们的训练方案诱导出了与习惯性行为相符的稳定行为和心理生理反应。在反转时，对于强关联刺激，反转“否”试验的显著速度成本表明习惯性抑制很明显。积极和消极情绪线索对习惯性抑制产生了更大影响。我们首次报告了一种易受情绪刺激影响的认知控制机制的证据，并对情绪如何增强或抵消由习惯性抑制介导的某些行为异常提出了其他解释。
