TY - JOUR
T1 - Aversive emotional interference impacts behavior and prefronto-striatal activity during increasing attentional control
AU - Papazacharias, Apostolos
AU - Taurisano, Paolo
AU - Fazio, Leonardo
AU - Gelao, Barbara
AU - Di Giorgio, Annabella
AU - Lo Bianco, Luciana
AU - Quarto, Tiziana
AU - Mancini, Marina
AU - Porcelli, Annamaria
AU - Romano, Raffaella
AU - Caforio, Grazia
AU - Todarello, Orlando
AU - Popolizio, Teresa
AU - Blasi, Giuseppe
AU - Bertolino, Alessandro
PY - 2015/4/21
Y1 - 2015/4/21
N2 - Earlier studies have demonstrated that emotional stimulation modulates attentional processing during goal-directed behavior and related activity of a brain network including the inferior frontal gyrus (IFG) and the caudate nucleus. However, it is not clear how emotional interference modulates behavior and brain physiology during variation in attentional control, a relevant question for everyday life situations in which both emotional stimuli and cognitive load vary. The aim of this study was to investigate the impact of negative emotions on behavior and activity in IFG and caudate nucleus during increasing levels of attentional control. Twenty two healthy subjects underwent event-related functional magnetic resonance imaging while performing a task in which neutral or fearful facial expressions were displayed before stimuli eliciting increasing levels of attentional control processing. Results indicated slower reaction time (RT) and greater right IFG activity when fearful compared with neutral facial expressions preceded the low level of attentional control. On the other hand, fearful facial expressions preceding the intermediate level of attentional control elicited faster behavioral responses and greater activity in the right and left sides of the caudate. Finally, correlation analysis indicated a relationship between behavioral correlates of attentional control after emotional interference and right IFG activity. All together, these results suggest that the impact of negative emotions on attentional processing is differentially elicited at the behavioral and physiological levels as a function of cognitive load.
AB - Earlier studies have demonstrated that emotional stimulation modulates attentional processing during goal-directed behavior and related activity of a brain network including the inferior frontal gyrus (IFG) and the caudate nucleus. However, it is not clear how emotional interference modulates behavior and brain physiology during variation in attentional control, a relevant question for everyday life situations in which both emotional stimuli and cognitive load vary. The aim of this study was to investigate the impact of negative emotions on behavior and activity in IFG and caudate nucleus during increasing levels of attentional control. Twenty two healthy subjects underwent event-related functional magnetic resonance imaging while performing a task in which neutral or fearful facial expressions were displayed before stimuli eliciting increasing levels of attentional control processing. Results indicated slower reaction time (RT) and greater right IFG activity when fearful compared with neutral facial expressions preceded the low level of attentional control. On the other hand, fearful facial expressions preceding the intermediate level of attentional control elicited faster behavioral responses and greater activity in the right and left sides of the caudate. Finally, correlation analysis indicated a relationship between behavioral correlates of attentional control after emotional interference and right IFG activity. All together, these results suggest that the impact of negative emotions on attentional processing is differentially elicited at the behavioral and physiological levels as a function of cognitive load.
KW - Attentional control
KW - Caudate nucleus
KW - Emotion
KW - fMRI
KW - Inferior frontal gyrus
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U2 - 10.3389/fnbeh.2015.00097
DO - 10.3389/fnbeh.2015.00097
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:84929165418
SN - 1662-5153
VL - 9
JO - Frontiers in Behavioral Neuroscience
JF - Frontiers in Behavioral Neuroscience
IS - APR
M1 - 97
ER -