scholarly journals Task-irrelevant odours affect both response inhibition and response readiness in fast-paced Go/No-Go task: the case of valence

2019 ◽  
Vol 9 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Javier Albayay ◽  
Umberto Castiello ◽  
Valentina Parma
Keyword(s):  
Response Inhibition ◽  
Intertrial Interval ◽  
Emotional Stimuli ◽  
Emotional Information ◽  
Task Relevance ◽  
Clean Air ◽  
Response Readiness ◽  
Attentional Interference ◽  
Task Irrelevant

AbstractWhether emotional stimuli influence both response readiness and inhibition is highly controversial. Visual emotional stimuli appear to interfere with both under certain conditions (e.g., task relevance). Whether the effect is generalisable to salient yet task-irrelevant stimuli, such as odours, remains elusive. We tested the effect of orthonasally-presented pleasant (orange) and unpleasant odours (trimethyloxazole and hexenol) and clean air as a control on response inhibition. In emotional Go/No-Go paradigms, we manipulated the intertrial interval and ratios of Go/No-Go trials to account for motor (Experiment 1, N = 31) and cognitive (Experiment 2, N = 29) response inhibition processes. In Experiment 1, participants had greater difficulty in withholding and produced more accurate and faster Go responses under the pleasant vs. the control condition. Faster Go responses were also evident in the unpleasant vs. the control condition. In Experiment 2, neither pleasant nor unpleasant odours modulated action withholding, but both elicited more accurate and faster Go responses as compared to the control condition. Pleasant odours significantly impair action withholding (as compared to the control condition), indicating that more inhibitory resources are required to elicit successful inhibition in the presence of positive emotional information. This modulation was revealed for the motor aspect of response inhibition (fast-paced design with lower Go/No-Go trial ratio) rather than for attentional interference processes. Response readiness is critically impacted by the emotional nature of the odour (but not by its valence). Our findings highlight that the valence of task-irrelevant odour stimuli is a factor significantly influencing response inhibition.

scholarly journals ERP Evidence for a Sex-Specific Stroop Effect in Emotional Speech

2003 ◽  
Vol 15 (8) ◽  
pp. 1135-1148 ◽  
Author(s):  
Annett Schirmer ◽  
Sonja A. Kotz
Keyword(s):  
Semantic Processing ◽  
Event Related Potentials ◽  
Behavioral Effect ◽  
Emotional Prosody ◽  
Emotional Speech ◽  
Emotional Stimuli ◽  
Emotional Information ◽  
Men And Women ◽  
Related Potentials ◽  
Task Irrelevant

The present study investigated the interaction of emotional prosody and word valence during emotional comprehension in men and women. In a prosody-word interference task, participants listened to positive, neutral, and negative words that were spoken with a happy, neutral, and angry prosody. Participants were asked to rate word valence while ignoring emotional prosody, or vice versa. Congruent stimuli were responded faster and more accurately as compared to incongruent emotional stimuli. This behavioral effect was more salient for the word valence task than for the prosodic task and was comparable between men and women. The event-related potentials (ERPs) revealed a smaller N400 amplitude for congruent as compared to emotionally incongruent stimuli. This ERP effect, however, was significant only for the word valence judgment and only for female listeners. The present data suggest that the word valence judgment was more difficult and more easily influenced by task-irrelevant emotional information than the prosodic task in both men and women. Furthermore, although emotional prosody and word valence may have a similar influence on an emotional judgment in both sexes, ERPs indicate sex differences in the underlying processing. Women, but not men, show an interaction between prosody and word valence during a semantic processing stage.

scholarly journals The Effect of Odour Valence and Odour Detection Threshold on the Withholding and Cancellation of Reach-to-Press Responses

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Javier Albayay ◽  
Umberto Castiello ◽  
Valentina Parma
Keyword(s):  
Response Inhibition ◽  
Detection Threshold ◽  
Threshold Levels ◽  
Initial Release ◽  
Clean Air ◽  
Main Components ◽  
Task Irrelevant ◽  
The Impact ◽  
Healthy Participants

Abstract Introduction Withholding uninitiated actions and cancelling ongoing ones are two main components of response inhibition, a key element of the executive control. Inhibitory performance is sensitive to emotional contexts elicited by subliminal and supraliminal visual material. However, whether stimuli from other sensory modalities, such as odours, would equally modulate response inhibition remains unclear. Here, we aimed to assess the effect of task-irrelevant odours as a function of their valence and threshold on both action withholding and action cancellation of reach-to-press movements. Method Thirty-two healthy participants performed a Go/No-Go task that included the presentation of pleasant (orange) and unpleasant (trimethyloxazole) odour primes at supra- and sub-threshold levels; clean air was included as a control condition. The reach-to-press responses were composed of an initial release phase and a subsequent reaching phase. Results Only the supra-threshold pleasant (vs. control) odour impaired action withholding. Moreover, the pleasant (vs. control) odour—presented at both sub- and supra-threshold levels—elicited more accurate Go responses, whereas the sub- and supra-threshold pleasant and unpleasant (vs. control) odours triggered faster responses in the release phase. Additionally, only the supra-threshold pleasant (vs. unpleasant) odour impaired action cancellation in the reaching phase. Furthermore, reaching responses were slower following the supra-threshold unpleasant (vs. control) odour. Conclusions Our findings extend the sparse literature on the impact of odour stimuli on goal-directed behaviour, highlighting the role of both odour valence and threshold in the modulation of response inhibition. Implications Determining the mechanisms by which odour stimuli modulate response inhibition lays the foundations for research on odour-triggered disinhibition.

scholarly journals Neural Indices of Emotional Distraction

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
◽  
Kelly Hewitt
Keyword(s):  
Resource Allocation ◽  
Stimulus Display ◽  
Spatial Location ◽  
Detection Sensitivity ◽  
Attentional Resource ◽  
Emotional Stimuli ◽  
Emotional Information ◽  
Starting Point ◽  
Task Irrelevant ◽  
Emotional Distraction

<p>Emotional stimuli capture our attention. The preferential processing of emotional information is an adaptive mechanism that when relevant to our goal highlights potentially important aspects in the environment. However, when emotional information is task-irrelevant, their presence in the environment can trigger involuntary shifts in attention that cause detriments to performance. One challenge to investigating emotional distraction in the lab is how to objectively investigate the allocation of attention between different elements on the same stimulus display (e.g. between the task and the distractors). One neural measure that overcomes this issue is the Steady-State-Visual-Evoked-Potential (SSVEP). An SSVEP is the neural response of the visual cortex to a flickering stimulus and can be used as a measure of attentional resource allocation (Norcia, Appelbaum, Ales, Cottereau, & Rossion, 2015). In the past, emotional distraction has been studied using spatially separated tasks and distractors. The current thesis presents two experiments using SSVEPs to investigate emotional distraction in a superimposed design. Experiment 1 aimed to conceptually replicate Hindi Attar and colleagues (2010) who developed an SSVEP emotional distraction paradigm to examine attentional resource allocation between background task-irrelevant emotional distractors and a foreground dot-motion task. Participants viewed a stimulus display of moving, flickering dots, while positive or neutrally valanced distractors (or unidentifiable scrambles) were presented in the background of the task. SSVEPs were reduced in the presence of positive intact compared to neutral intact distractors suggesting that the presentation of task-irrelevant emotional stimuli in the same spatial location as a foreground task initiates an involuntary shift of attention away from the task. Unexpectedly, in both Experiments 1 and 2 valence differences were found in SSVEPs between positive and neutral scrambled images; this suggests that there are some perceptual differences between the stimulus sets (e.g. colour) contributing to the drop in SSVEP found for positive intact images. Importantly, in the SSVEP analysis significant valence x image type interactions were found, demonstrating that the drop for positive images was stronger for intact than scrambled image conditions, suggesting that a significant amount of the drop in SSVEP was driven by a difference in valence between the intact distractors. Behavioural results also suggest evidence for emotional distraction through reduced hit rate in the presence of positive intact images compared to neutral intact images in Experiment 1, and reduced detection sensitivity and response criterion for positive intact images in Experiment 2. Overall, the current thesis demonstrates support for the hypothesis that emotional information is more distracting than neutral information and provides a valuable starting point for the examination of emotion attention interactions when the task and distractors share the same location. Future studies could use SSVEPs to examine neural processing differences between emotional and neutral scrambled images.</p>

scholarly journals Threat-induced Impulsivity in Go/Nogo Tasks: Relationships to Task-relevance of Emotional Stimuli and Virtual Proximity

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Thomas Edward Gladwin ◽  
Martin Möbius ◽  
Matthijs Vink
Keyword(s):  
College Students ◽  
Task Design ◽  
Emotional Stimuli ◽  
Task Relevance ◽  
Future Studies ◽  
Commission Errors ◽  
Task Irrelevant ◽  
Impulsive Responding ◽  
Threatening Stimuli ◽  
Threat Stimuli

Threatening stimuli are thought to induce impulsive responses, but Emotional Go/Nogo task results are not in line with this. We extend previous research by comparing effects of task-relevance of emotional stimuli and virtual proximity. Four studies were performed to test this in healthy college students. When emotional stimuli were task-relevant, threat both increased commission errors and decreased RT, but this was not found when emotional stimuli were task-irrelevant. This was found in both between-subject and within-subject designs. These effects were found using a task version with equal go and nogo rates, but not with 90%-10% go-nogo rates. Proximity was found to increase threat-induced speeding, with task-relevant stimuli only, although effects on accuracy were less clear. Threat stimuli can thus induce impulsive responding, but effects depend on features of the task design. The results may be of use in understanding theoretically unexpected results involving threat and impulsivity and designing future studies.

scholarly journals Neural Indices of Emotional Distraction

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
◽  
Kelly Hewitt
Keyword(s):  
Resource Allocation ◽  
Stimulus Display ◽  
Spatial Location ◽  
Detection Sensitivity ◽  
Attentional Resource ◽  
Emotional Stimuli ◽  
Emotional Information ◽  
Starting Point ◽  
Task Irrelevant ◽  
Emotional Distraction

<p>Emotional stimuli capture our attention. The preferential processing of emotional information is an adaptive mechanism that when relevant to our goal highlights potentially important aspects in the environment. However, when emotional information is task-irrelevant, their presence in the environment can trigger involuntary shifts in attention that cause detriments to performance. One challenge to investigating emotional distraction in the lab is how to objectively investigate the allocation of attention between different elements on the same stimulus display (e.g. between the task and the distractors). One neural measure that overcomes this issue is the Steady-State-Visual-Evoked-Potential (SSVEP). An SSVEP is the neural response of the visual cortex to a flickering stimulus and can be used as a measure of attentional resource allocation (Norcia, Appelbaum, Ales, Cottereau, & Rossion, 2015). In the past, emotional distraction has been studied using spatially separated tasks and distractors. The current thesis presents two experiments using SSVEPs to investigate emotional distraction in a superimposed design. Experiment 1 aimed to conceptually replicate Hindi Attar and colleagues (2010) who developed an SSVEP emotional distraction paradigm to examine attentional resource allocation between background task-irrelevant emotional distractors and a foreground dot-motion task. Participants viewed a stimulus display of moving, flickering dots, while positive or neutrally valanced distractors (or unidentifiable scrambles) were presented in the background of the task. SSVEPs were reduced in the presence of positive intact compared to neutral intact distractors suggesting that the presentation of task-irrelevant emotional stimuli in the same spatial location as a foreground task initiates an involuntary shift of attention away from the task. Unexpectedly, in both Experiments 1 and 2 valence differences were found in SSVEPs between positive and neutral scrambled images; this suggests that there are some perceptual differences between the stimulus sets (e.g. colour) contributing to the drop in SSVEP found for positive intact images. Importantly, in the SSVEP analysis significant valence x image type interactions were found, demonstrating that the drop for positive images was stronger for intact than scrambled image conditions, suggesting that a significant amount of the drop in SSVEP was driven by a difference in valence between the intact distractors. Behavioural results also suggest evidence for emotional distraction through reduced hit rate in the presence of positive intact images compared to neutral intact images in Experiment 1, and reduced detection sensitivity and response criterion for positive intact images in Experiment 2. Overall, the current thesis demonstrates support for the hypothesis that emotional information is more distracting than neutral information and provides a valuable starting point for the examination of emotion attention interactions when the task and distractors share the same location. Future studies could use SSVEPs to examine neural processing differences between emotional and neutral scrambled images.</p>

scholarly journals Advantage for Emotional Words in Immediate and Delayed Memory Tasks: Could it be Explained in Terms of Processing Capacity?

2002 ◽  
Vol 5 (2) ◽  
pp. 78-89 ◽  
Author(s):  
Pilar Ferré
Keyword(s):  
Processing Capacity ◽  
Emotional Stimuli ◽  
Emotional Information ◽  
Emotional Words ◽  
Neutral Information ◽  
Term Retention ◽  
Long Term Retention ◽  
Retention Intervals ◽  
The One

Emotional stimuli are better remembered and recognized than neutral ones. This advantage for emotional stimuli has been repeatedly obtained when testing long-term retention. However, there are contradictory results concerning retention of emotional information when short retention intervals are used. The aim of the present study was, on the one hand, to test the effect of retention interval on memory for emotional stimuli (Experiment 1). The results showed that emotional information is better remembered than neutral information in both immediate and delayed memory tests, suggesting that the advantage for emotional information is not limited to long retention intervals. On the other hand, I tried to test the proposals made by Christianson and Nilsson (1984) and Bower (1992). These authors suggested that the advantage for emotional stimuli could be explained as emotional stimuli spending more processing capacity during acquisition, thus rendering less capacity available to encode simultaneously presented information (Experiments 2 and 3). Results showed that concurrent presentation of emotional stimuli did not inhibit the recall of neutral stimuli. These findings do not seem to support the proposals of Christianson and Nilsson (1984) and Bower (1992). According to these results, some mechanisms other than a greater spending of processing capacity have to be involved in the advantage for emotional information in memory.

scholarly journals Cerebellar GABA Levels and Cognitive Interference in Parkinson’s disease and Healthy Comparators

2020 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
pp. 16
Author(s):  
Federica Piras ◽  
Daniela Vecchio ◽  
Francesca Assogna ◽  
Clelia Pellicano ◽  
Valentina Ciullo ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Response Inhibition ◽  
Correlation Coefficients ◽  
Wisconsin Card Sorting Test ◽  
Resonance Spectroscopy ◽  
Interference Effects ◽  
Card Sorting ◽  
Color Test ◽  
Perseverative Errors ◽  
Molecular Substrates ◽  
Task Irrelevant

The neuroanatomical and molecular substrates for cognitive impairment in Parkinson Disease (PD) are far from clear. Evidence suggests a non-dopaminergic basis, and a crucial role for cerebellum in cognitive control in PD. We investigated whether a PD cognitive marker (response inhibition) was differently controlled by g-amino butyric acid (GABA) and/or by glutamate-glutamine (Glx) levels in the cerebellum of idiopathic PD patients, and healthy comparators (HC). Magnetic resonance spectroscopy of GABA/Glx (MEGA-PRESS acquisition sequence) was performed at 3 Tesla, and response inhibition assessed by the Stroop Word-Color Test (SWCT) and the Wisconsin Card Sorting Test (WCST). Linear correlations between cerebellar GABA/Glx levels, SWCT time/error interference effects and WCST perseverative errors were performed to test differences between correlation coefficients in PD and HC. Results showed that higher levels of mean cerebellar GABA were associated to SWCT increased time and error interference effects in PD, and the contrary in HC. Such effect dissociated by hemisphere, while correlation coefficients differences were significant in both right and left cerebellum. We conclude that MRS measured levels of cerebellar GABA are related in PD patients with decreased efficiency in filtering task-irrelevant information. This is crucial for developing pharmacological treatments for PD to potentially preserve cognitive functioning.

scholarly journals Additive and interactive effects of spatial attention and expectation on perceptual decisions

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Arianna Zuanazzi ◽  
Uta Noppeney
Keyword(s):  
Spatial Attention ◽  
Interactive Effects ◽  
Signal Probability ◽  
Direct Influence ◽  
Top Down ◽  
Perceptual Inference ◽  
Effective Interactions ◽  
Task Relevance ◽  
Task Irrelevant

AbstractSpatial attention and expectation are two critical top-down mechanisms controlling perceptual inference. Based on previous research it remains unclear whether their influence on perceptual decisions is additive or interactive.We developed a novel multisensory approach that orthogonally manipulated spatial attention (i.e. task relevance) and expectation (i.e. signal probability) selectively in audition and evaluated their effects on observers’ responses in vision. Critically, while experiment 1 manipulated expectation directly via the probability of task-relevant auditory targets across hemifields, experiment 2 manipulated it indirectly via task-irrelevant auditory non-targets.Surprisingly, our results demonstrate that spatial attention and signal probability influence perceptual decisions either additively or interactively. These seemingly contradictory results can be explained parsimoniously by a model that combines spatial attention, general and spatially selective response probabilities as predictors with no direct influence of signal probability. Our model provides a novel perspective on how spatial attention and expectations facilitate effective interactions with the environment.

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