Emotion perception and executive control interact in the salience network during emotionally charged working memory processing

The long-term correlates of developmental stress on whole-brain functional connectivity during emotion regulation

Early life stress is associated with alterations in brain function and connectivity during affective processing, especially in the fronto-limbic pathway. However, most of the previous studies were limited to a small set of priori-selected regions and did not address the impact of stress timing on functional connectivity. Using data from a longitudinal birth cohort study (n = 161, 87 females, mean age (SD) = 32.2(0.3)), we investigated the associations between different time points of stress exposure and functional connectivity. We measured stressful life events across development using a modified version of Munich Event List and grouped into four developmental stages: prenatal/newborn (prenatal-3 months), infancy and toddlerhood (3 months-4.5 years), childhood (4.5-11 years), and adolescence (11-19 years). All participants completed an fMRI-based emotion regulation task at the age of 33 years. Task-dependent directed functional connectivity was calculated using whole-brain generalized psychophysiological interactions. The association between life stress and connectivity was investigated within a multiple regression framework. Our findings revealed distinct associations between stress exposure and task-specific functional connectivity, depending on the developmental timing of stress exposure. While prenatal and childhood stress were associated with lower connectivity between subcortex and cognitive networks, stress exposure unique to adolescence was related to higher connectivity from the salience network to the cognitive networks. These results suggest that early life stress alters the connectivity of cognitive and limbic networks, which are important for emotion processing and regulation. Future research should replicate and extend the findings regarding sensitive periods by utilizing diverse paradigms in cognitive, social, and emotional domains.

Effects of startle on cognitive performance and physiological activity revealed by fNIRS and thermal imaging

Sudden and threatening stimuli can trigger a startle reflex, a stereotyped physiological response that may lead to a brief cognitive incapacitation. Better understanding this reaction would be beneficial to safety-critical occupational domains. We characterized some physiological correlates of the startle response while participants completed a difficult task (Toulouse N-back task) tapping executive functions. During the task, loud and threatening sounds were presented unpredictably to trigger a startle reflex. Brain activity and facial skin temperature were measured in 34 participants using functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS) and functional infrared thermal imaging (fITI), respectively. In the high difficulty condition, participants were generally less efficient, but their performance improved slightly following startle in the high difficulty condition. Brain activity in the right prefrontal cortex was also higher following startle, potentially reflecting a compensatory overactivation to sustain performance. Interestingly, higher trait-anxiety was associated with lower task performance, still following startle in the high difficulty condition. Finally, we found a decrease in temperature of the right eye and right cheek as well as an increase in the nose temperature following startle. These results underscore the complexity of startle-induced cognitive and physiological dynamics, which may have implications for occupational settings where managing sudden stressors is crucial.

Negative affect-driven impulsivity as hierarchical model-based overgeneralization

'If your mouth is burned by milk, you blow before you eat yogurt' ('Sütten ağzı yanan yoğurdu üfleyerek yer'). This Turkish proverb advises caution based on past experiences when similar situations are encountered. However, although we may infer similarities across experiences, each situation is a complex combination of many features, and generalizing across situations based on perceived similarities may not achieve desired outcomes when obtaining them depends on more subtle or overlooked features. Here, we examine how models of generalization can uncover the model-based (MB) processes underlying reactive and rigid behaviors traditionally considered model-free (MF). Our novel conceptualization suggests that emotionally driven impulsive behaviors stem from a propensity to overgeneralize based on surface-level similarities, hindering the incorporation of other informative, discriminant cues.

Emotional salience network involved in constructing two-dimensional fear space in humans

Fear learning is pivotal for organismal survival, ensuring the ability to avoid potential threats through learning based on experiencing minimal fear information. In reality, fear learning requires to form a structured representation of fear experiences from multiple dimensions in order to support flexible use in ever-changing environment. Yet, the underlying neural mechanisms of constructing dimensional fear space remain elusive. Here we set up an innovative approach with two-dimensional fear learning, by utilizing the probability (uncertainty) and subjective pain intensity of threatening mild electric shock with five levels of each dimension. Behaviorally, individuals constructed a two-dimensional fear space after learning phase, as evidenced by significant changes in participant's fearful ratings for each cue associated with a five-by-five grid after (relative to before) learning phase. Analysis of neuroimaging data revealed that the medial temporal lobe, in conjunction with the amygdala, the insula, the anterior cingulate cortex (ACC), the hippocampus, and the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (dlPFC), collectively contribute to the construction of a two-dimensional fear space consisting of uncertainty and intensity. Activation in the parahippocampal gyrus, insula, and dlPFC was associated with mental navigation within two-dimensional fear space, whereas the engagement of insula, ACC, amygdala, the hippocampus, the dlPFC was associated with a unified fearful scoring cross uncertainty and intensity dimensions after fear learning. Our findings suggest a neurocognitive model through which emotional salience network underlies the construction of a structured representation of fear experiences from multiple dimensions.

Neurophysiological Pathways of Unconscious Emotion Processing in Depression: Insights From a Simultaneous Electroencephalography-Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging Measurement

BACKGROUND

Major depressive disorder (MDD) is characterized by strong emotional dysregulation. Mechanisms driving the negative affect in depression may be fast processes existing on an unconscious level.

METHODS

A priming task was conducted using simultaneous electroencephalography-functional magnetic resonance imaging measurement involving presentation of facial expressions (happy, sad, and neutral) to examine the neurophysiological pathway of biased unconscious emotion processing in MDD. Priming prior to a target emotion created unconscious (16.7-ms primer) and conscious (150-ms primer) trials. A large sample (N = 126) was recruited, containing healthy control participants (n = 66; 37 women) and participants with MDD (n = 60; 31 women).

RESULTS

The healthy control group showed a shorter reaction time in happy but not in sad or neutral trials compared with the MDD group. N170 amplitudes were lower in trials with unconscious than conscious primer presentation. N170 amplitudes correlated with cortical (right fusiform gyrus, right middle temporal gyrus, right inferior temporal gyrus, left supplementary motor area, right middle frontal gyrus) and subcortical brain regions (right amygdala). The strength of N170 and brain activity correlation increased when the stimulus was consciously presented. Presented emotions did not affect the correlation of N170 values and brain activity.

CONCLUSIONS

Our findings show that MDD may exhibit biased emotion regulation abilities at a behavioral and neurophysiological level. Face-sensitive event-related potentials demonstrate a correlation with heightened brain activity in regions associated with both face recognition (fusiform gyrus) and emotion processing (amygdala). These findings are evident in both MDD and healthy control groups, with lower effect sizes in the MDD group indicating reduced emotion recognition and processing abilities.

The characteristics of WM in individuals with depressive tendencies: A functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS) study

Individuals with depressive tendencies are considered to be at high risk for the onset of depressive disorders. Currently, most research focuses on the impairment of working memory in patients with depression, while there is less attention paid to the WM of individuals with depressive tendencies, and their neural mechanisms underlying it are poorly understood. Therefore, this study focuses on the characteristics and neural mechanisms of WM in individuals with depressive tendencies. This study uses functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS) to monitor the concentration of Oxy-Hb in the prefrontal cortex and employs the n-back paradigm, designing three levels of load: 0, 1, and 2, to examine the characteristics of WM and its neural mechanisms in individuals with depressive tendencies. Behavioral results show that the accuracy rates of individuals with depressive tendencies is significantly lower than that of healthy individuals, and under the 0-back condition, the reaction time of individuals with depressive tendencies is significantly higher than that of healthy control individuals. Near-infrared results indicate that the activation level in the frontal pole and the dorsal lateral prefrontal cortex of individuals with depressive tendencies is significantly lower than that of healthy control individuals. The β values of channels 2, 7, and 9 are significantly negatively correlated with the Beck Depression Inventory scores of the participants. The results suggest that the reduced activation of the frontal pole and dorsal lateral prefrontal cortex in individuals with depressive tendencies leads to poorer WM performance compared to healthy control individuals. This is a rare brain evidence of the characteristics of WM in individuals with depressive tendencies, which can provide a deeper understanding of the WM characteristics of individuals with depressive tendencies.

Neural activation changes following attention bias modification treatment or a selective serotonin reuptake inhibitor for social anxiety disorder

BACKGROUND

Delineation of changes in neural function associated with novel and established treatments for social anxiety disorder (SAD) can advance treatment development. We examined such changes following selective serotonin reuptake inhibitor (SSRI) and attention bias modification (ABM) variant - gaze-contingent music reward therapy (GC-MRT), a first-line and an emerging treatments for SAD.

METHODS

Eighty-one patients with SAD were allocated to 12-week treatments of either SSRI or GC-MRT, or waitlist (ns = 22, 29, and 30, respectively). Baseline and post-treatment functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) data were collected during a social-threat processing task, in which attention was directed toward and away from threat/neutral faces.

RESULTS

Patients who received GC-MRT or SSRI showed greater clinical improvement relative to patients in waitlist. Compared to waitlist patients, treated patients showed greater activation increase in the right inferior frontal gyrus and anterior cingulate cortex when instructed to attend toward social threats and away from neutral stimuli. An additional anterior cingulate cortex cluster differentiated between the two active groups. Activation in this region increased in ABM and decreased in SSRI. In the ABM group, symptom change was positively correlated with neural activation change in the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex.

CONCLUSIONS

Brain function measures show both shared and treatment-specific changes following ABM and SSRI treatments for SAD, highlighting the multiple pathways through which the two treatments might work. Treatment-specific neural responses suggest that patients with SAD who do not fully benefit from SSRI or ABM may potentially benefit from the alternative treatment, or from a combination of the two.

TRIAL REGISTRATION

ClinicalTrials.gov, Identifier: NCT03346239. https://clinicaltrials.gov/ct2/show/NCT03346239.

Dynamic Organization of Large-scale Functional Brain Networks Supports Interactions Between Emotion and Executive Control

Emotion and executive control are often conceptualized as two distinct modes of human brain functioning. Little, however, is known about how the dynamic organization of large-scale functional brain networks that support flexible emotion processing and executive control, especially their interactions. The amygdala and prefrontal systems have long been thought to play crucial roles in these processes. Recent advances in human neuroimaging studies have begun to delineate functional organization principles among the large-scale brain networks underlying emotion, executive control, and their interactions. Here, we propose a dynamic brain network model to account for interactive competition between emotion and executive control by reviewing recent resting-state and task-related neuroimaging studies using network-based approaches. In this model, dynamic interactions among the executive control network, the salience network, the default mode network, and sensorimotor networks enable dynamic processes of emotion and support flexible executive control of multiple processes; neural oscillations across multiple frequency bands and the locus coeruleus-norepinephrine pathway serve as communicational mechanisms underlying dynamic synergy among large-scale functional brain networks. This model has important implications for understanding how the dynamic organization of complex brain systems and networks empowers flexible cognitive and affective functions.

Interaction between visual working memory and upright postural control in young adults: an event-related potential study based on the n-back paradigm

As a part of the overall information-processing system of the brain, postural control is related to the cognitive processes of working memory. Previous studies have suggested that cognitive tasks and postural control processes can compete for resources in common brain areas, although there is an "inverted U" relationship between arousal level and behavioral control - the arousal level of individuals changes when performing cognitive tasks. However, the exact neural connections between the two are unclear. This may be related to the nature of cognitive tasks. Some studies believe that posture occupies not only spatial information processing resources but also visual non-spatial information processing resources. Other studies believe that posture control only occupies spatial information processing resources in the central system, but does not occupy non-spatial information processing resources. Previous studies used different cognitive task materials and reached different conclusions. In this study, we used the same visuospatial and non-spatial materials, the n-back visual working memory paradigm, the event-related potential technique to investigate the effects of visuospatial and non-spatial working memory tasks on adolescents' postural control under different cognitive loads. The results of this study showed that in both visuospatial and non-spatial conditions, the N1 effect of the parieto-occipital lobe was larger during upright posture than in the sitting position (160-180 ms), the P300 effect of the central parieto-occipital region (280-460 ms) was induced by working memory in different postures, and the P300 wave amplitude was higher in the sitting position than in the upright position. We demonstrated that upright postural control enhances early selective attention but interferes with central memory encoding, thus confirming that postural control and visuospatial and non-spatial working memory share brain regions and compete with each other.

Insula uses overlapping codes for emotion in self and others

In daily life, we must recognize others' emotions so we can respond appropriately. This ability may rely, at least in part, on neural responses similar to those associated with our own emotions. We hypothesized that the insula, a cortical region near the junction of the temporal, parietal, and frontal lobes, may play a key role in this process. We recorded local field potential (LFP) activity in human neurosurgical patients performing two tasks, one focused on identifying their own emotional response and one on identifying facial emotional responses in others. We found matching patterns of gamma- and high-gamma band activity for the two tasks in the insula. Three other regions (MTL, ACC, and OFC) clearly encoded both self- and other-emotions, but used orthogonal activity patterns to do so. These results support the hypothesis that the insula plays a particularly important role in mediating between experienced vs. observed emotions.

Shared and Distinct Neurobiological Bases of Bipolar Disorder and Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder in Children and Adolescents: A Comparative Meta-Analysis of Structural Abnormalities

OBJECTIVE

Pediatric bipolar disorder (PBD) and attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) frequently co-occur and share dysfunctions in affective and cognitive domains. As the neural substrates underlying their overlapping and dissociable symptomatology have not been well delineated, a meta-analysis of whole-brain voxel-based morphometry studies in PBD and ADHD was conducted.

METHOD

A systematic literature search was performed in PubMed, Web of Science, and Embase. The seed-based d mapping toolbox was used to identify altered clusters of PBD or ADHD and obtain their conjunctive and comparative abnormalities. Suprathreshold patterns were subjected to large-scale network analysis to identify affected brain networks.

RESULTS

The search revealed 10 PBD studies (268 patients) and 32 ADHD studies (1,333 patients). Decreased gray matter volumes in the right insula and anterior cingulate cortex relative to typically developing individuals were conjunctive in PBD and ADHD. Reduced volumes in the right inferior frontal gyrus, left orbitofrontal cortex, and hippocampus were more substantial in PBD, while decreased volumes in the left precentral gyrus, left inferior frontal gyrus, and right superior frontal gyrus were more pronounced in ADHD. Neurodevelopmental effects modulated patterns of the left hippocampus in PBD and those of the left inferior frontal gyrus in ADHD.

CONCLUSION

These findings suggest that PBD and ADHD are characterized by both common and distinct patterns of gray matter volume alterations. Their overlapping abnormalities may represent a transdiagnostic problem of attention and emotion regulation shared by PBD and ADHD, whereas the disorder-differentiating substrates may contribute to the relative differences in cognitive and affective features that define the 2 disorders.

PLAIN LANGUAGE SUMMARY

Pediatric bipolar disorder (BD) and attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) frequently co-occur, with overlapping changes in emotional and cognitive functioning. This meta-analysis summarizes findings from 10 articles on BD and 32 articles on ADHD to identify similarities and differences in brain structure between youth with BD and youth with ADHD. The authors found that both disorders share decreased gray matter volumes in the right insula and anterior cingulate cortex, which play important roles in emotion processing and attention, respectively. Youth with BD had decreased gray matter volume in the right inferior frontal gyrus, left orbitofrontal gyrus, and left hippocampus, while youth with ADHD had decreased volumes in the left precentral gyrus, left inferior frontal gyrus, and right superior frontal gyrus.

STUDY PREREGISTRATION INFORMATION

Structural Brain Abnormalities of Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder and Bipolar Disorder in Children/Adolescents: An Overlapping Meta-analysis; https://osf.io; trg4m.

Grip strength, working memory, and emotion perception in middle-aged males

This study examined the association between grip strength and emotional working memory in middle-aged adults. Seventy-six males aged 40-60years (mean=48.5years, SD=5.4) participated in this cross-sectional study. They completed a muscular fitness assessment using a maximum grip strength test and emotional n-back tasks under two emotion conditions (fearful and neutral facial pictures) and two working memory loads (1-back and 2-back tasks). Hierarchical regression analyses indicated that greater muscular fitness was associated with superior working memory performance in the fearful condition in both the 1-back and 2-back tasks, after controlling for confounders. Greater muscular fitness was also associated with superior working memory performance in the neutral condition when the working memory load was high (2-back task) but not low (1-back task). These findings suggest a positive association between muscular fitness and emotional working memory and highlight the importance of maintaining muscular fitness for physical and cognitive-emotional well-being in middle-aged adults.

Social and non-social working memory in neurodegeneration

Although social functioning relies on working memory, whether a social-specific mechanism exists remains unclear. This undermines the characterization of neurodegenerative conditions with both working memory and social deficits. We assessed working memory domain-specificity across behavioral, electrophysiological, and neuroimaging dimensions in 245 participants. A novel working memory task involving social and non-social stimuli with three load levels was assessed across controls and different neurodegenerative conditions with recognized impairments in: working memory and social cognition (behavioral-variant frontotemporal dementia); general cognition (Alzheimer's disease); and unspecific patterns (Parkinson's disease). We also examined resting-state theta oscillations and functional connectivity correlates of working memory domain-specificity. Results in controls and all groups together evidenced increased working memory demands for social stimuli associated with frontocinguloparietal theta oscillations and salience network connectivity. Canonical frontal theta oscillations and executive-default mode network anticorrelation indexed non-social stimuli. Behavioral-variant frontotemporal dementia presented generalized working memory deficits related to posterior theta oscillations, with social stimuli linked to salience network connectivity. In Alzheimer's disease, generalized working memory impairments were related to temporoparietal theta oscillations, with non-social stimuli linked to the executive network. Parkinson's disease showed spared working memory performance and canonical brain correlates. Findings support a social-specific working memory and related disease-selective pathophysiological mechanisms.

Prediction errors arising from switches between major and minor modes in music: An fMRI study

The major and minor modes in Western music have positive and negative connotations, respectively. The present fMRI study examined listeners' neural responses to switches between major and minor modes. We manipulated the final chords of J. S. Bach's keyboard pieces so that each major-mode passage ended with either the major (Major-Major) or minor (Major-Minor) tonic chord, and each minor-mode passage ended with either the minor (Minor-Minor) or major (Minor-Major) tonic chord. If the final major and minor chords have positive and negative reward values respectively, the Major-Minor and Minor-Major stimuli would cause negative and positive reward prediction errors (RPEs) respectively in a listener's brain. We found that activity in a frontoparietal network was significantly higher for Major-Minor than for Major-Major. Based on previous research, these results support the idea that a major-to-minor switch causes negative RPE. The contrast of Minor-Major minus Minor-Minor yielded activation in the ventral insula and visual cortex, speaking against the idea that a minor-to-major switch causes positive RPE. We discuss our results in relation to executive functions and the emotional connotations of major versus minor modes.

Targeted neurostimulation reverses a spatiotemporal biomarker of treatment-resistant depression

Major depressive disorder (MDD) is widely hypothesized to result from disordered communication across brain-wide networks. Yet, prior resting-state-functional MRI (rs-fMRI) studies of MDD have studied zero-lag temporal synchrony (functional connectivity) in brain activity absent directional information. We utilize the recent discovery of stereotyped brain-wide directed signaling patterns in humans to investigate the relationship between directed rs-fMRI activity, MDD, and treatment response to FDA-approved neurostimulation paradigm termed Stanford neuromodulation therapy (SNT). We find that SNT over the left dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC) induces directed signaling shifts in the left DLPFC and bilateral anterior cingulate cortex (ACC). Directional signaling shifts in the ACC, but not the DLPFC, predict improvement in depression symptoms, and moreover, pretreatment ACC signaling predicts both depression severity and the likelihood of SNT treatment response. Taken together, our findings suggest that ACC-based directed signaling patterns in rs-fMRI are a potential biomarker of MDD.

Neurocomputational mechanisms underlying fear-biased adaptation learning in changing environments

Humans are able to adapt to the fast-changing world by estimating statistical regularities of the environment. Although fear can profoundly impact adaptive behaviors, the computational and neural mechanisms underlying this phenomenon remain elusive. Here, we conducted a behavioral experiment (n = 21) and a functional magnetic resonance imaging experiment (n = 37) with a novel cue-biased adaptation learning task, during which we simultaneously manipulated emotional valence (fearful/neutral expressions of the cue) and environmental volatility (frequent/infrequent reversals of reward probabilities). Across 2 experiments, computational modeling consistently revealed a higher learning rate for the environment with frequent versus infrequent reversals following neutral cues. In contrast, this flexible adjustment was absent in the environment with fearful cues, suggesting a suppressive role of fear in adaptation to environmental volatility. This suppressive effect was underpinned by activity of the ventral striatum, hippocampus, and dorsal anterior cingulate cortex (dACC) as well as increased functional connectivity between the dACC and temporal-parietal junction (TPJ) for fear with environmental volatility. Dynamic causal modeling identified that the driving effect was located in the TPJ and was associated with dACC activation, suggesting that the suppression of fear on adaptive behaviors occurs at the early stage of bottom-up processing. These findings provide a neuro-computational account of how fear interferes with adaptation to volatility during dynamic environments.

Statistical Inference for High-Dimensional Vector Autoregression with Measurement Error

High-dimensional vector autoregression with measurement error is frequently encountered in a large variety of scientific and business applications. In this article, we study statistical inference of the transition matrix under this model. While there has been a large body of literature studying sparse estimation of the transition matrix, there is a paucity of inference solutions, especially in the high-dimensional scenario. We develop inferential procedures for both the global and simultaneous testing of the transition matrix. We first develop a new sparse expectation-maximization algorithm to estimate the model parameters, and carefully characterize their estimation precisions. We then construct a Gaussian matrix, after proper bias and variance corrections, from which we derive the test statistics. Finally, we develop the testing procedures and establish their asymptotic guarantees. We study the finite-sample performance of our tests through intensive simulations, and illustrate with a brain connectivity analysis example.

Parsing brain-behavior heterogeneity in very preterm born children using integrated similarity networks

Very preterm birth (VPT; ≤32 weeks' gestation) is associated with altered brain development and cognitive and behavioral difficulties across the lifespan. However, heterogeneity in outcomes among individuals born VPT makes it challenging to identify those most vulnerable to neurodevelopmental sequelae. Here, we aimed to stratify VPT children into distinct behavioral subgroups and explore between-subgroup differences in neonatal brain structure and function. 198 VPT children (98 females) previously enrolled in the Evaluation of Preterm Imaging Study (EudraCT 2009-011602-42) underwent Magnetic Resonance Imaging at term-equivalent age and neuropsychological assessments at 4-7 years. Using an integrative clustering approach, we combined neonatal socio-demographic, clinical factors and childhood socio-emotional and executive function outcomes, to identify distinct subgroups of children based on their similarity profiles in a multidimensional space. We characterized resultant subgroups using domain-specific outcomes (temperament, psychopathology, IQ and cognitively stimulating home environment) and explored between-subgroup differences in neonatal brain volumes (voxel-wise Tensor-Based-Morphometry), functional connectivity (voxel-wise degree centrality) and structural connectivity (Tract-Based-Spatial-Statistics). Results showed two- and three-cluster data-driven solutions. The two-cluster solution comprised a 'resilient' subgroup (lower psychopathology and higher IQ, executive function and socio-emotional scores) and an 'at-risk' subgroup (poorer behavioral and cognitive outcomes). No neuroimaging differences between the resilient and at-risk subgroups were found. The three-cluster solution showed an additional third 'intermediate' subgroup, displaying behavioral and cognitive outcomes intermediate between the resilient and at-risk subgroups. The resilient subgroup had the most cognitively stimulating home environment and the at-risk subgroup showed the highest neonatal clinical risk, while the intermediate subgroup showed the lowest clinical, but the highest socio-demographic risk. Compared to the intermediate subgroup, the resilient subgroup displayed larger neonatal insular and orbitofrontal volumes and stronger orbitofrontal functional connectivity, while the at-risk group showed widespread white matter microstructural alterations. These findings suggest that risk stratification following VPT birth is feasible and could be used translationally to guide personalized interventions aimed at promoting children's resilience.

Increased top-down control of emotions during symptom provocation working memory tasks following a RCT of alpha-down neurofeedback in PTSD

BACKGROUND

Posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) has been found to be associated with emotion under-modulation from the prefrontal cortex and a breakdown of the top-down control of cognition and emotion. Novel adjunct therapies such as neurofeedback (NFB) have been shown to normalize aberrant neural circuits that underlie PTSD psychopathology at rest. However, little evidence exists for NFB-linked neural improvements under emotionally relevant cognitive load. The current study sought to address this gap by examining the effects of alpha-down NFB in the context of an emotional n-back task.

METHODS

We conducted a 20-week double-blind randomized, sham-controlled trial of alpha-down NFB and collected neuroimaging data before and after the NFB protocol. Participants performed an emotional 1-back and 2-back working memory task, with interleaved trauma-neutral and trauma-relevant cues in the fMRI scanner. Data from 35 participants with a primary diagnosis of PTSD were analyzed in this study (n = 18 in the experimental group undergoing alpha-down NFB, n = 17 in the sham-control group).

RESULTS

Firstly, within-group analyses showed clinically significant reductions in PTSD symptom severity scores at the post-intervention timepoint and 3-month follow-up for the experimental group, and not for the sham-control group. The neuroimaging analyses revealed that alpha-down NFB enhanced engagement of top-down cognitive and emotional control centers, such as the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (dlPFC), and improved integration of the anterior and posterior parts of the default mode network (DMN). Finally, our results also indicate that increased alpha-down NFB performance correlated with increased activity in brain regions involved in top-down control and bodily consciousness/embodied processing of self (TPJ and posterior insula).

CONCLUSION

This is the first study to provide mechanistic insights into how NFB may normalize dysfunctional brain activity and connectivity in PTSD under cognitive load with simultaneous symptom provocation, adding to a growing body of evidence supporting the therapeutic neuromodulatory effects of NFB. This preliminary study highlights the benefits of alpha-down NFB training as an adjunctive therapy for PTSD and warrants further investigation into its therapeutic effects on cognitive and emotion control in those with PTSD.

Dysconnectivity between the anterior insula and the dorsal anterior cingulate cortex during an emotion go/nogo paradigm is associated with aggressive behaviors in male schizophrenia patients

This study aimed to investigate the association between past-reported violent/aggressive behaviors and brain functional connectivity in male patients suffering from schizophrenia using a task modeling the interaction between negative emotion processing and response inhibition. Forty-four male patients with schizophrenia and twenty-two healthy male controls performed an emotional go/no-go task using angry and neutral faces during a functional magnetic resonance imaging session. Generalized psycho-physiological interaction was conducted to explore task-based functional connectivity and a negative binomial regression was used to evaluate the relationship between neural alterations and violent/aggressive behaviors. Regions involved in response inhibition and emotion regulation, such as the anterior insula, dorsal anterior cingulate cortex (dACC) and dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC), were used as seed regions. During emotion-related response inhibition, patients with schizophrenia displayed altered connectivity between the anterior insula and amygdala, the DLPFC and lateral orbitofrontal cortex (OFC), as well as the anterior insula and the dACC when compared to healthy individuals. The latter was negatively associated with aggressive behaviors in participants with schizophrenia (Wald χ² = 9.51; p < 0.05, p-FDR corrected). Our results highlight alterations in functional connectivity in brain regions involved in cognitive control and emotion processing which are associated with aggressive behaviors in schizophrenia.

Emotional body expressions facilitate working memory: Evidence from the n‐back task

In daily life, individuals need to recognize and update emotional information from others' changing body expressions. However, whether emotional bodies can enhance working memory (WM) remains unknown. In the present study, participants completed a modified n-back task, in which they were required to indicate whether a presented image of an emotional body matched that of an item displayed before each block (0-back) or two positions previously (2-back). Each block comprised only fear, happiness, or neutral. We found that in the 0-back trials, when compared with neutral body expressions, the participants took less time and showed comparable ceiling effects for accuracy in happy bodies followed by fearful bodies. When WM load increased to 2-back, both fearful and happy bodies significantly facilitated WM performance (i.e., faster reaction time and higher accuracy) relative to neutral conditions. In summary, the current findings reveal the enhancement effect of emotional body expressions on WM and highlight the importance of emotional action information in WM.

Neural mechanisms of brand love relationship dynamics: Is the development of brand love relationships the same as that of interpersonal romantic love relationships?

Brand love is a relationship between brands and consumers. Managing the relationship is an important issue for marketing strategy since it changes according to temporal flow. Brand love theories, including their dynamics, have been developed based on interpersonal romantic love theories. Although many brand love studies have provided useful findings, the neural mechanism of brand love remains unclear. Especially, its dynamics have not been considered from a neuroscience perspective. The present study addressed the commonalities and differentiations of activated brain regions between brand love and interpersonal romantic love relationships using a quantitative neuroimaging meta-analytic approach, from the view of brain connectivity. Regarding the mental processes of each love relationship related to these activated brain regions, decoding analysis was conducted using the NeuroQuery platform to prevent reverse inference. The results revealed that different neural mechanisms and mental processes were distinctively involved in the dynamics of each love relationship, although the anterior insula overlapped across all stages and the reinforcement learning system was driven between both love relationships in the early stage. Remarkably, regarding the distinctive mental processes, although prosocial aspects were involved in the mental processes of interpersonal romantic love relationships across all stages, they were not involved in the mental processes of brand love relationships. Conclusively, although common brain regions and mental processes between both love relationships were observed, neural mechanisms and mental processes in brand love relationship dynamics might be innately different from those in the interpersonal romantic love relationship dynamics. As this finding indicates essential distinctiveness between both these relationships, theories concerning interpersonal romantic love should be applied cautiously when investigating brand love relationship dynamics.

Resting-state brain network in Parkinson’s disease with different degrees of depression

Objective

The aim of this study is to explore the neural network mechanism of Parkinson’s disease (PD) with different degrees of depression using independent component analysis (ICA) of the functional connectivity changes in the forehead, limbic system, and basal ganglia regions.

Methods

A total of 106 patients with PD were divided into three groups: PD with moderate-severe depression (PDMSD, n = 42), PD with mild depression (PDMD, n = 29), and PD without depression (PDND, n = 35). Fifty gender- and age-matched healthy subjects were recruited as a control group (HC). Three-dimensional T1-weighted image and resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging (RS-fMRI) data were collected.

Results

Different functional connectivity was observed in the left precentral gyrus, right precuneus, right inferior frontal gyrus, right medial and paracingulate gyrus, left supplementary motor area, right brain insula, and the inferior frontal gyrus of the left orbit among the four groups (ANOVA, P &lt; 0.05, Voxel size &gt; 5). Both PDMD and PDMSD exhibited increased functional connectivity in the superior-posterior default-mode network (spDMN) and left frontoparietal network (LFPN); they also exhibited a decreased functional connectivity in the interior Salience Network (inSN) when compared with the PDND group. The functional connectivity within the inSN network was decreased in the PDMSD group when compared with the PDMD group (Alphasim correction, P &lt; 0.05, voxel size &gt; 5).

Conclusion

PD with different degrees of depression has abnormal functional connectivity in multiple networks, which is an important neurobiological basis for the occurrence and development of depression in PD. The degree of decreased functional connectivity in the inSN network is related to the degree of depression in patients with PD-D, which can be an imaging marker for PD to judge the severity of depression.

Trust violations affect the emotional working memory updating: An event-related brain potential study

Previous studies found that trust violations impaired the ability of working memory (WM) updating, however, these studies did not consider the emotional context in the WM updating. Individuals who experience trust violations have the characteristics of negative bias and enhanced negative emotion. Thus it is necessary to explore how emotional contexts moderate the relationship between trust violations and WM updating. In this study, the trust game was used to manipulate trust violations. Fifty-three participants performed the emotional two-back task while event-related potentials were recorded. Results showed that compared to the control group, the violation group had smaller P2 and P3 amplitudes both in emotional and nonemotional contexts and larger N2 amplitudes in the emotional contexts. There were no significant differences between the two groups on the behavioral data. These results suggest that trust violations result in the inefficient allocation of attention in the early attention (P2) and updating maintenance stages (P3) regardless of the emotional type of the material. Trust violations also improve the abilities of response inhibition, conflict monitoring, or sequential match (N2) when processing emotional material, which may play a compensatory role to maintain a level of behavioral performance comparable to the control group. Together, trust violations affect the sub-processes underlying emotional WM updating differently, and these influences are not valence specific.

Working Memory Models and Measures in Language and Bilingualism Research: Integrating Cognitive and Affective Perspectives

Although emotional or affective working memory (WM) is quite well established in general psychology, not much research has looked into its potential implications for the language sciences and bilingualism and second language acquisition (SLA) research until recently. To fill this gap, this paper aims to propose that WM has not just cognitive implications, but its affective dimension may also make complementary and unique contributions to language and bilingualism/SLA research. Towards this end, we first briefly synthesize the cognitive views of WM conceptions and assessment procedures in the current language sciences and bilingualism/SLA research. Next, we turn to discuss the theoretical models and assumptions of affective WM and explore their theoretical implications for bilingualism/SLA research based on emerging empirical evidence. Then, we propose a conceptual framework integrating cognitive and affective WM perspectives and further provide guidelines for designing affective WM span tasks that can be used in future affective WM–language research, focusing on the construction procedures of several emotion-based affective WM span tasks (e.g., the emotional reading span task, the emotional operation span task, and the emotional symmetry span task) as examples. Overall, we argue that affective feelings are also an integral part of the mental representations held in WM and future research in the language sciences and bilingualism/SLA should incorporate both cognitive and affective WM dimensions.

Intranasal Oxytocin Modulates the Salience Network in Aging

Growing evidence supports a role of the neuropeptide oxytocin in promoting social cognition and prosocial behavior, possibly via modulation of the salience of social information. The effect of intranasal oxytocin administration on the salience network, however, is not well understood, including in the aging brain. To address this research gap, 42 young (22.52 ± 3.02 years; 24 in the oxytocin group) and 43 older (71.12 ± 5.25 years; 21 in the oxytocin group) participants were randomized to either self-administer intranasal oxytocin or placebo prior to resting-state functional imaging. The salience network was identified using independent component analysis (ICA). Independent t-tests showed that individuals in the oxytocin compared to the placebo group had lower within-network resting-state functional connectivity, both for left amygdala (MNI coordinates: x = −18, y = 0, z = −15; corrected p < 0.05) within a more ventral salience network and for right insula (MNI coordinates: x = 39, y = 6, z = −6; corrected p < 0.05) within a more dorsal salience network. Age moderation analysis furthermore demonstrated that the oxytocin-reduced functional connectivity between the ventral salience network and the left amygdala was only present in older participants. These findings suggest a modulatory role of exogenous oxytocin on resting-state functional connectivity within the salience network and support age-differential effects of acute intranasal oxytocin administration on this network.

Long-Term Stress and Trait Anxiety Affect Brain Network Balance in Dynamic Cognitive Computations

Long-term stress has a profound impact on executive functions. Trait anxiety is recognized as a vulnerable factor accounting for stress-induced adaptive or maladaptive effects. However, the neurocognitive mechanisms underlying long-term stress and trait anxiety interactions remain elusive. Here we investigated how long-term stress and trait anxiety interact to affect dynamic decisions during n-back task performance by altering functional brain network balance. In comparison to controls, participants under long-term stress experienced higher psychological distress and exhibited faster evidence accumulation but had a lower decision-threshold when performing n-back tasks in general. This corresponded with hyper-activation in the anterior insula, less deactivation in the default-mode network, and stronger default-mode network decoupling with the frontoparietal network. Critically, high trait anxiety under long-term stress led to slower evidence accumulation through higher frontoparietal activity during cognitively demanding task, and increased decoupling between the default-mode and frontoparietal networks. Our findings suggest a neurocognitive model of how long-term stress and trait anxiety interplay to affect latent dynamic computations in executive functioning with adaptive and maladaptive changes, and inform personalized assessments and preventions for stress vulnerability.

Facing successfully high mental workload and stressors: An fMRI study

The present fMRI study aimed at highlighting patterns of brain activations and autonomic activity when confronted with high mental workload and the threat of auditory stressors. Twenty participants performed a complex cognitive task in either safe or aversive conditions. Our results showed that increased mental workload induced recruitment of the lateral frontoparietal executive control network (ECN), along with disengagement of medial prefrontal and posterior cingulate regions of the default mode network (DMN). Mental workload also elicited an increase in heart rate and pupil diameter. Task performance did not decrease under the threat of stressors, most likely due to efficient inhibition of auditory regions, as reflected by a large decrement of activity in the superior temporal gyri. The threat of stressors was also accompanied with deactivations of limbic regions of the salience network (SN), possibly reflecting emotional regulation mechanisms through control from dorsal medial prefrontal and parietal regions, as indicated by functional connectivity analyses. Meanwhile, the threat of stressors induced enhanced ECN activity, likely for improved attentional and cognitive processes toward the task, as suggested by increased lateral prefrontal and parietal activations. These fMRI results suggest that measuring the balance between ECN, SN, and DMN recruitment could be used for objective mental state assessment. In this sense, an extra recruitment of task‐related regions and a high ratio of lateral versus medial prefrontal activity may represent a relevant marker of increased but efficient mental effort, while the opposite may indicate a disengagement from the task due to mental overload and/or stressors.

Differential effects of estradiol on neural and emotional stress response in postmenopausal women with remitted Major Depressive Disorder

BACKGROUND

Estrogen fluctuations throughout the lifespan may contribute to major depressive disorder (MDD) risk in women through effects on brain networks important in stress responding, and mood regulation. Although there is evidence to support ovarian hormone treatment for peri-menopausal depression, postmenopausal use has not been well examined. The objective of this study was to investigate whether estrogen modulation of the neural and emotional cognitive responses to stress differs between postmenopausal women with and without MDD history.

METHODS

60 postmenopausal women completed an fMRI psychosocial stress task, after receiving no drug or 3 months of daily estradiol (E2). fMRI activity and subjective mood response were examined.

RESULTS

In women without a history of MDD, E2 was associated with a more negative mood response to stress and less activity in emotional regulation regions. In women with a history of MDD, E2 was associated with a less negative mood response to stress and less activity in emotion perception regions.

LIMITATIONS

This study was limited by open-label estradiol administration and inclusion of participants using antidepressants.

CONCLUSIONS

These results support a differential effect of estrogen on emotional and neural responses to psychosocial stress in postmenopausal women with MDD history and may reflect a shift in brain activity patterns related to emotion processing following menopause.

Patrolling the boundaries of social domains: Neural activations to violations of expectations for romantic and work relationships

According to the social domains hypothesis, we reduce the information-processing demands of complex social cues by classifying them into a limited number of domains, each with distinct sets of expectations. This requires rapid identification of violations of the boundaries between social domains. We hypothesized that these violations are likely to be associated with neural activation of the salience system. Using fMRI we compared responses of 20 adults to expected and unexpected everyday social scenarios in personal and work interactions. The vignettes exemplified different kinds of scenarios presented in the work setting, i.e., task-focused scenarios which are expected at work and scenarios with a personal focus, which are unexpected at work. The key contrast between task and personal focussed scenarios presented in the work setting was associated with fronto-insular activation. Perceived inappropriateness of the unexpected scenarios, and shorter response time to judgment of inappropriateness were also associated with fronto-insular activation, after controlling for unpleasantness. This study indicates specific neural responses to violations of expectations in different social situations. Our findings suggest that the fronto-insular region is implicated in rapid detection of behaviors that cross the boundaries of social domains, which are hypothesized to be necessary for efficient social information processing.

Facial expression recognition: A meta-analytic review of theoretical models and neuroimaging evidence

Discrimination of facial expressions is an elementary function of the human brain. While the way emotions are represented in the brain has long been debated, common and specific neural representations in recognition of facial expressions are also complicated. To examine brain organizations and asymmetry on discrete and dimensional facial emotions, we conducted an activation likelihood estimation meta-analysis and meta-analytic connectivity modelling on 141 studies with a total of 3138 participants. We found consistent engagement of the amygdala and a common set of brain networks across discrete and dimensional emotions. The left-hemisphere dominance of the amygdala and AI across categories of facial expression, but category-specific lateralization of the vmPFC, suggesting a flexibly asymmetrical neural representations of facial expression recognition. These results converge to characteristic activation and connectivity patterns across discrete and dimensional emotion categories in recognition of facial expressions. Our findings provide the first quantitatively meta-analytic brain network-based evidence supportive of the psychological constructionist hypothesis in facial expression recognition.

White matter correlates of scam susceptibility in community-dwelling older adults

Scam susceptibility places older adults - even those with intact cognition - at great risk. Lower grey matter volumes, particularly within right medial temporal regions, are associated with higher scam susceptibility; however, very little is known about white matter associates. We investigated associations between white matter integrity measured using diffusion tensor imaging (DTI) and scam susceptibility in 302 non-demented older adults (75% female; mean years: age = 81.3 + 7.5, education = 15.7 + 2.9). Participants completed comprehensive neuroimaging (including DTI, T1- and T2-weighted imaging), a self-report measure of scam susceptibility, and neuropsychological testing. Tract-Based Spatial Statistics (TBSS) investigated associations of DTI-derived measures of fractional anisotropy (FA), trace of the diffusion tensor, axial and radial diffusivity (separately) with scam susceptibility adjusting for age, sex, education, and white matter hyperintensities (WMH; total volume and voxelwise separately). Statistical significance was determined at p < 0.05, Family Wise Error corrected. TBSS revealed significant negative associations between FA in tracts connecting a number of right hemisphere white matter regions and scam susceptibility, particularly after additional adjustment for global cognitive functioning. The pathways implicated were mainly in right temporal-parietal and temporal-occipital regions. Association of trace, axial, and radial diffusivity with scam susceptibility were not significant in fully-adjusted models. Lower white matter integrity within right hemisphere tracts was associated with higher scam susceptibility independent of relevant confounds including global cognition. Thus, a right hemisphere brain network that includes key structures implicated in multi-sensory processing of immediate and future consequences may serve as a neurobiologic substrate of scam susceptibility in vulnerable older adults.

Updating Emotional Stimuli in Heroin Abstainers' Working Memory: An Event-Related Potential Investigation

BACKGROUND

It is well-documented that heroin users demonstrate aberrant emotion-processing abilities. However, the mechanism by which heroin users process emotional information after it has captured their attention and entered their working memory is unclear.

OBJECTIVES

A modified emotional 2-back task was used to examine whether heroin abstainers demonstrate specific bias patterns in updating emotional stimuli in their working memory.

METHODS

In total, 26 male heroin abstainers and 29 healthy controls were asked to identify whether the current picture was the same as a picture that had appeared two trials earlier, while behavioral data and electroencephalogram data were collected.

RESULTS

Contrary to predictions, the heroin abstainers and healthy controls demonstrated a similar pattern of P300 activity in response to emotional stimuli with no between-group differences in accuracy or reaction time. More specifically, the P300 amplitudes were larger for negative pictures than for positive and neutral pictures. Surprisingly, we found larger P300 amplitudes at Fz electrodes than at Cz and Pz electrodes in the control group, whereas there was no significant difference at midline electrodes in the heroin abstainers.

CONCLUSIONS/IMPORTANCE

Although subtle differences may exist in attentional engagement toward incoming emotional stimulus between two groups, the similar P300 pattern may indicate partial preservation of emotional working memory capacity associated with adaptive emotion regulation in heroin abstainers. These results deepen our understanding of the emotion regulation impairments associated with chronic drug use.

Differences in Working Memory With Emotional Distraction Between Proficient and Non-proficient Bilinguals

The impact of bilingual education and bilingual experience on working memory has been an important and controversial issue in the field of psycholinguistics. Taking Chinese-English bilinguals as an example, this study aims to investigate the differences in emotional working memory between proficient and non-proficient bilinguals by using delayed matching-to-sample task paradigm and the more complex N-back task in emotional contexts. The results show that proficient bilinguals may have better performance on both of these two working memory tasks than non-proficient bilinguals, and the advantage effects can be more apparent under high memory load conditions. In addition, the negative emotion context could have a positive impact on complex N-back tasks. This study supports the notion that bilingual experience can promote the development of an individual's cognitive ability and enable individuals to possess more advantages in working memory even in the presence of emotional contexts.

Structural connectivity profile supports laterality of the salience network

The salience network (SN) is mainly involved in detecting and filtering multimodal salient stimuli, and mediating the switch between the default mode network and central executive network. Early studies have indicated a right‐sided dominance in the functional organization of the SN; however, the anatomical basis of the functional lateralization remains unclear. Here, we hypothesized that the structural connectivity profile between the frontoinsular cortex (FIC) and dorsal anterior cingulate cortex (dACC), which are two core hubs of the SN, is also dominant in the right hemisphere. Based on diffusion and resting‐state functional magnetic resonance imaging (rfMRI) of adult healthy volunteers in independent datasets, we found a stable right‐sided laterality of both the FIC‐dACC structural and functional connectivity in both the human connectome project cohort and a local Chinese cohort. Furthermore, a significant effect of aging on the integrity of the right FIC‐dACC structural connectivity was also identified. The right‐sided laterality of the structural organization of the SN may help us to better understand the functional roles of the SN in the normal human brain.

Type 1 diabetes and working memory processing of emotional faces

Several executive functions decline with the development of type-1 diabetes (T1D), particularly working memory (WM). In adults, WM ensures efficient cognitive processing by focusing on task-relevant information while suppressing distractors. It has been well documented that WM can be influenced by emotional stimuli, which may facilitate the retention of information, interfere with uptake, or even affect its capacity. We evaluated the effect of T1D on visual WM processing using emotional faces as stimuli, in young patients with satisfactory clinical evolution, and matched controls without T1D. All subjects performed a 2-back task detecting facial identity using neutral, happy or fearful faces in a block design for fMRI. Behavioral performance was similar with the exception that patients responded significantly slower. Most importantly, between-group differences were found in patterns of brain activation. In comparison, more widespread brain activation -predominantly prefrontal- was found in the participants with T1D when processing neutral faces, while a decrease was observed when processing happy and fearful ones. Statistical contrasts demonstrated significantly-different activation patterns between groups when processing emotional faces, as controls exhibited greater activation in the cuneus, posterior cortex and parahippocampal gyrus, while the patients showed greater activation in the prefrontal structures. Results may reflect compensatory efforts made to minimize the deleterious effects of disease development on attention allocation processes and the operational efficiency of WM. The results suggest that emotional parameters should be periodically assessed in individuals with T1D in order to anticipate the emergence of attention and WM impairment.

Altered Spatial and Temporal Brain Connectivity in the Salience Network of Sensorineural Hearing Loss and Tinnitus

Sensorineural hearing loss (SNHL), sometimes accompanied with tinnitus, is associated with dysfunctions within and outside the classical auditory pathway. The salience network, which is anchored in bilateral anterior insula and dorsal anterior cingulate cortex, has been implicated in sensory integration. Partial auditory deprivation could alter the characteristics of the salience network and other related brain areas, thereby contributing to hearing impairments-induced neuropsychiatric symptoms. To test this hypothesis, we performed fMRI scanning and neuropsychological tests on 32 subjects with long-term bilateral hearing impairment and 30 well-matched Controls. Non-directional functional connectivity and directional Granger causality analysis were used to identify aberrant spatial and temporal patterns of connections targeting bilateral anterior insula and dorsal anterior cingulate cortex. We found that the left anterior insula showed decreased connectivity with right precentral gyrus and superior frontal gyrus. The connections between the dorsal anterior cingulate cortex and middle frontal gyrus, superior parietal gyrus and supplementary motor area (SMA) were also reduced. Relative to Controls, SNHL patients showed abnormal effective connectivity of the salience network, including inferior temporal gyrus, cerebellum lobule VI, lobule VIII, precentral gyrus, middle frontal gyrus and SMA. Furthermore, correlation analysis demonstrated that some of these atypical connectivity measures were correlated with performance of neuropsychiatric tests. These findings suggest that the inefficient modulation of the salience network might contribute to the neural basis of SNHL and tinnitus, as well as associated cognition and emotion deficits.

FEF Excitability in Attentional Bias: A TMS-EEG Study

The role of distinct cortical regions in guiding social orienting needs further investigation. Our aim was to explore the contribution of the frontal eye field (FEF) in early orienting of attention towards stimuli with social value. We used a TMS-EEG approach to investigate event related potentials (ERPs; no-TMS block) and TMS evoked potentials (TEPs; TMS block) during the cueing phase of a modified version of the dot-probe task, comparing competing (face vs. house) and not competing (house vs. house) conditions. Our results revealed an increased amplitude of ERP components in the competing condition, showing greater posterior N170 and fronto-central vertex positive potential (VPP) and an enhanced frontal negative component at 250-270 ms from cue onset. TMS pulses over the FEF induced similar N170 and VPP amplified components. In addition, in the ERPs, a reduced positivity at 400 ms was shown when the face appeared on the left side vs. the right side of space. In contrast, in the TMS blocks, we found lateralized effects on N170 depending on the side of face presentation. The enhanced cortical excitability induced by TMS over the right FEF significantly correlated with the performance on the behavioral task, suggesting a link between the FEF activity during the cueing phase of the dot-probe task and the subsequent behavioral response times to the targets.

Valence matters: An electrophysiological study on how emotions influence cognitive performance in children

Emotional stimuli have been found to influence cognitive performance in children, but it is not clear whether this effect varies with the cognitive demands of the task. In this study, we examined how emotional expressions influenced cognitive performance and event-related potentials (ERPs) in early and middle childhood under varying cognitive control demands. Two groups of children (4.5-6.0 and 7.0-8.5 years) completed a modified flanker task where the stimuli were faces displaying task-irrelevant emotional expressions. Emotional influence varied depending on emotional valence: Accuracy was greater for happy targets, while response time and N2 latency were longer for angry targets. In younger children only, angry targets elicited a larger late frontal negativity. Cognitive control demands did not modulate the effect of emotions on behavioral performance or ERPs, contrasting with findings in adults. Findings are discussed in relation to the dual competition model and previous work demonstrating a positivity bias in children.

RELATIONS BETWEEN EMOTION AND WORKING MEMORY: EVIDENCE FROM BEHAVIOURAL AND PSYCHOPHYSIOLOGICAL STUDIES

Baddeley (2007) proposed the Hedonic Detection to explain the connection between emotion and working memory (WM). This review aimed to systematize evidence of the influence of emotion on performance of WM tasks and its association with the Hedonic system on current studies. We carried out a database research that generated 103 papers in a restricted period (2007-2017). Ten papers combining behavioural tests with psychophysiological measures and ten papers using strictly behavioural tasks were selected. In all approaches were observed that the type of cognitive request underlying the task is crucial to understand how WM performance is influenced by emotion. Besides, was possible to detect a trend in the literature to focus on executive process related to a neural model for WM, since just only one behavioural paper explained the results based on Hedonic Detector system.

Salience network response to changes in emotional expressions of others is heightened during early adolescence: relevance for social functioning

Adolescence is a unique developmental period when the salience of social and emotional information becomes particularly pronounced. Although this increased sensitivity to social and emotional information has frequently been considered with respect to risk behaviors and psychopathology, evidence suggests that increased adolescent sensitivity to social and emotional cues may confer advantages. For example, greater sensitivity to shifts in the emotions of others is likely to promote flexible and adaptive social behavior. In this study, a sample of 54 children and adolescents (age 8-19 years) performed a delayed match-to-sample task for emotional faces while undergoing fMRI scanning. Recruitment of the anterior cingulate and anterior insula when the emotion of the probe face did not match the emotion held in memory followed a quadratic developmental pattern that peaked during early adolescence. These findings indicate meaningful developmental variation in the neural mechanisms underlying sensitivity to changes in the emotional expressions. Across all participants, greater activation of this network for changes in emotional expression was associated with less social anxiety and fewer social problems. These results suggest that the heightened salience of social and emotional information during adolescence may confer important advantages for social behavior, providing sensitivity to others' emotions that facilitates flexible social responding.

An unpleasant emotional state reduces working memory capacity: electrophysiological evidence

Emotional states can guide the actions and decisions we make in our everyday life through their influence on cognitive processes such as working memory (WM). We investigated the long-lasting interference that an unpleasant emotional state had on goal-relevant WM representations from an electrophysiological perspective. Participants performed a change detection task that was preceded by the presentation of unpleasant or neutral task-irrelevant pictures in a blocked fashion. We focused on the contralateral delay activity (CDA), an event-related potential that is sensitive to the number of task-relevant items stored in WM. We found that the asymptotic limit for the CDA amplitude was lower during the unpleasant emotional state than during the neutral one; that is, an emotional state was capable of reducing how many task-relevant items the participants could hold in WM. Furthermore, both the individuals who experienced more intrusive thoughts and those who were dispositionally anxious were more susceptible to the influence of the emotional state. We provide evidence that an unpleasant emotional state diminished visual WM for task-relevant items, particularly in susceptible individuals. These results open new avenues to uncover the emotional-cognitive processing that underlies maladaptive WM representations and the role of such processing in the development of mental illness.

Dissociable meta-analytic brain networks contribute to coordinated emotional processing

Meta-analytic techniques for mining the neuroimaging literature continue to exert an impact on our conceptualization of functional brain networks contributing to human emotion and cognition. Traditional theories regarding the neurobiological substrates contributing to affective processing are shifting from regional- towards more network-based heuristic frameworks. To elucidate differential brain network involvement linked to distinct aspects of emotion processing, we applied an emergent meta-analytic clustering approach to the extensive body of affective neuroimaging results archived in the BrainMap database. Specifically, we performed hierarchical clustering on the modeled activation maps from 1,747 experiments in the affective processing domain, resulting in five meta-analytic groupings of experiments demonstrating whole-brain recruitment. Behavioral inference analyses conducted for each of these groupings suggested dissociable networks supporting: (1) visual perception within primary and associative visual cortices, (2) auditory perception within primary auditory cortices, (3) attention to emotionally salient information within insular, anterior cingulate, and subcortical regions, (4) appraisal and prediction of emotional events within medial prefrontal and posterior cingulate cortices, and (5) induction of emotional responses within amygdala and fusiform gyri. These meta-analytic outcomes are consistent with a contemporary psychological model of affective processing in which emotionally salient information from perceived stimuli are integrated with previous experiences to engender a subjective affective response. This study highlights the utility of using emergent meta-analytic methods to inform and extend psychological theories and suggests that emotions are manifest as the eventual consequence of interactions between large-scale brain networks.