scholarly journals Emotional context sculpts action goal representations in the lateral frontal pole

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Regina C Lapate ◽  
Ian C Ballard ◽  
Marisa K Heckner ◽  
Mark D'Esposito
Keyword(s):  
Cognitive Control ◽  
Emotional Processing ◽  
Basolateral Amygdala ◽  
Contextual Information ◽  
Emotional Valence ◽  
Emotional States ◽  
Frontal Pole ◽  
Emotional Context ◽  
Action Goal ◽  
Pattern Similarity

Emotional states provide an ever-present source of contextual information that should inform behavioral goals. Despite the ubiquity of emotional signals in our environment, the neural mechanisms underlying their influence on goal-directed action remains unclear. Prior work suggests that the lateral frontal pole (FPl) is uniquely positioned to integrate affective information into cognitive control representations. We used pattern similarity analysis to examine the content of representations in FPl and interconnected mid-lateral prefrontal and amygdala circuitry. Healthy participants (n=37; n=21 females) were scanned while undergoing an event-related Affective Go/No-Go task, which requires goal-oriented action selection during emotional processing. We found that FPl contained conjunctive emotion-action goal representations that were related to successful cognitive control during emotional processing. These representations differed from conjunctive emotion-action goal representations found in the basolateral amygdala. While robust action goal representations were present in mid-lateral prefrontal cortex, they were not modulated by emotional valence. Finally, converging results from functional connectivity and multivoxel pattern analyses indicated that FPl's emotional valence signals likely originated from interconnected subgenual ACC (BA25), which was in turn functionally coupled with the amygdala. Thus, our results identify a key pathway by which internal emotional states influence goal-directed behavior.

scholarly journals Emotional context sculpts action goal representations in the lateral frontal pole

2021 ◽  
pp. JN-RM-1522-21
Author(s):  
RC Lapate ◽  
IC Ballard ◽  
MK Heckner ◽  
M D’Esposito
Keyword(s):  
Frontal Pole ◽  
Emotional Context ◽  
Action Goal

scholarly journals Low-frequency subthalamic neural oscillations are involved in explicit and implicit facial emotional processing - a local field potential study

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Thibaut Dondaine ◽  
Joan Duprez ◽  
Jean-François Houvenaghel ◽  
Julien Modolo ◽  
Claire Haegelen ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Cognitive Control ◽  
Cognitive Processing ◽  
Local Field ◽  
Local Field Potential ◽  
Emotional Processing ◽  
Field Potential ◽  
Low Frequency ◽  
Emotional Valence ◽  
Neural Oscillations ◽  
Trial Phase

AbstractIn addition to the subthalamic nucleus’ (STN) role in motricity, STN deep brain stimulation (DBS) for Parkinson’s disease (PD) has also uncovered its involvement in cognitive and limbic processing. STN neural oscillations analyzed through local field potential (LFP) recordings have been shown to contribute to emotional (mostly in the alpha band [8-12 Hz]) and cognitive processing (theta [4-7 Hz] and beta [13-30 Hz] bands). In this study, we aimed at testing the hypothesis that STN oscillatory activity is involved in explicit and implicit processing of emotions. We used a task that presented the patients with emotional facial expressions and manipulated the cognitive demand by either asking them to identify the emotion (explicit task) or the gender of the face (implicit task). We evaluated emotion and task effects on STN neural oscillations power and inter-trial phase consistency. Our results revealed that STN delta power was influenced by emotional valence, but only in the implicit task. Interestingly, the strongest results were found for inter-trial phase consistency: we found an increased consistency for delta oscillations in the implicit task as compared to the explicit task. Furthermore, increased delta and theta consistency were associated with better task performance. These low-frequency effects are similar to the oscillatory dynamics described during cognitive control. We suggest that these findings might reflect a greater need for cognitive control, although an effect of greatest task difficulty in the implicit situation could have influenced the results as well. Overall, our study suggests that low-frequency STN neural oscillations, especially their functional organization, are involved in explicit and implicit emotional processing.Highlights-STN LFPs were recorded during an emotional/gender recognition task in PD patients-STN delta power increase depended on emotional valence in the implicit task only-STN delta inter-trial phase consistency increase was greater for the implicit task-Delta/theta inter-trial phase consistency was associated with task accuracy-The STN is involved in the interaction between emotional and cognitive processing

The effects of emotional context and exposure frequency on L2 contextual word learning

2021 ◽  
pp. 136700692110165
Author(s):  
Sijia Hao ◽  
Lijuan Liang ◽  
Jue Wang ◽  
Huanhuan Liu ◽  
Baoguo Chen
Keyword(s):  
Recognition Test ◽  
Word Learning ◽  
Learning Process ◽  
Recall Test ◽  
Emotional Valence ◽  
Emotional Information ◽  
Neutral Context ◽  
Emotional Context ◽  
Exposure Frequency ◽  
Form Recognition

Objectives: An experiment was conducted to explore how emotional valence of contexts and exposure frequency of novel words affect second language (L2) contextual word learning. Methodology: Chinese native speakers who learned English in a formal classroom setting were asked to read English paragraphs with different emotional valence (positive, negative or neutral) across five different days. These paragraphs were embedded with pseudowords. During this learning process, form recognition test and meaning recall test were carried out for these pseudowords. Data and analysis: Data were analyzed using mixed-model ANOVA. Accuracy for each task was compared among the three kinds of emotional contexts. Findings/Conclusions: In the form recognition test, the accuracy in the negative context was higher than in the positive and neutral contexts, and the pseudowords were acquired much earlier. In the meaning recall test, the accuracy in the positive and negative contexts was higher than that in the neutral context. Accuracy increased gradually with the increase of exposure frequency of the pseudowords. More importantly, we found that less exposure times were needed for emotional context relative to neutral context in contextual word learning. Originality: This may be the first study to explore the influence of emotional valence and exposure frequency on L2 contextual word learning. Significance/Implications: This study underlined the importance of emotional information in L2 contextual word learning and contributed to the understanding of how emotional information and exposure frequency functions in this learning process.

scholarly journals Exposure to and recall of violence reduce short-term memory and cognitive control

2017 ◽  
Vol 114 (32) ◽  
pp. 8505-8510 ◽  
Author(s):  
Francesco Bogliacino ◽  
Gianluca Grimalda ◽  
Pietro Ortoleva ◽  
Patrick Ring
Keyword(s):  
Cognitive Control ◽  
Cognitive Functions ◽  
Short Term Memory ◽  
Exposure To Violence ◽  
Well Being ◽  
Emotional States ◽  
Long Term Effects ◽  
Short Term ◽  
Urban District ◽  
Term Memory

Previous research has investigated the effects of violence and warfare on individuals' well-being, mental health, and individual prosociality and risk aversion. This study establishes the short- and long-term effects of exposure to violence on short-term memory and aspects of cognitive control. Short-term memory is the ability to store information. Cognitive control is the capacity to exert inhibition, working memory, and cognitive flexibility. Both have been shown to affect positively individual well-being and societal development. We sampled Colombian civilians who were exposed either to urban violence or to warfare more than a decade earlier. We assessed exposure to violence through either the urban district-level homicide rate or self-reported measures. Before undertaking cognitive tests, a randomly selected subset of our sample was asked to recall emotions of anxiety and fear connected to experiences of violence, whereas the rest recalled joyful or emotionally neutral experiences. We found that higher exposure to violence was associated with lower short-term memory abilities and lower cognitive control in the group recalling experiences of violence, whereas it had no effect in the other group. This finding demonstrates that exposure to violence, even if a decade earlier, can hamper cognitive functions, but only among individuals actively recalling emotional states linked with such experiences. A laboratory experiment conducted in Germany aimed to separate the effect of recalling violent events from the effect of emotions of fear and anxiety. Both factors had significant negative effects on cognitive functions and appeared to be independent from each other.

scholarly journals Neurophysiological Correlates of Comprehending Emotional Meaning in Context

2009 ◽  
Vol 21 (11) ◽  
pp. 2245-2262 ◽  
Author(s):  
Daphne J. Holt ◽  
Spencer K. Lynn ◽  
Gina R. Kuperberg
Keyword(s):  
Emotional Processing ◽  
Semantic Analysis ◽  
Emotional Valence ◽  
N400 Effect ◽  
Late Positivity ◽  
Electrophysiological Responses ◽  
Emotional Meaning ◽  
Reading Experiment ◽  
The Brain ◽  
Modulated Process

Although the neurocognitive mechanisms of nonaffective language comprehension have been studied extensively, relatively less is known about how the emotional meaning of language is processed. In this study, electrophysiological responses to affectively positive, negative, and neutral words, presented within nonconstraining, neutral contexts, were evaluated under conditions of explicit evaluation of emotional content (Experiment 1) and passive reading (Experiment 2). In both experiments, a widely distributed Late Positivity was found to be larger to negative than to positive words (a “negativity bias”). In addition, in Experiment 2, a small, posterior N400 effect to negative and positive (relative to neutral) words was detected, with no differences found between N400 magnitudes to negative and positive words. Taken together, these results suggest that comprehending the emotional meaning of words following a neutral context requires an initial semantic analysis that is relatively more engaged for emotional than for nonemotional words, whereas a later, more extended, attention-modulated process distinguishes the specific emotional valence (positive vs. negative) of words. Thus, emotional processing networks within the brain appear to exert a continuous influence, evident at several stages, on the construction of the emotional meaning of language.

scholarly journals Ratings of Affective and Non-Affective Aspects of German Idioms in Second Language Processing

2019 ◽  
Vol 5 (1) ◽  
pp. 11-42
Author(s):  
Teodor Petrič
Keyword(s):  
Second Language ◽  
Language Processing ◽  
Emotional Processing ◽  
Figurative Language ◽  
Second Language Learners ◽  
Native Speakers ◽  
Emotional Valence ◽  
Large Set ◽  
Language Technology ◽  
Idiomatic Expressions

AbstractIn this paper psycholinguistic and emotional properties of 619 German idiomatic expressions are explored. The list of idiomatic expressions has been adapted from Citron et al. (2015), who have used it with German native speakers. In our study the same idioms were evaluated by Slovene learners of German as a foreign language. Our participants rated each idiom for emotional valence, emotional arousal, familiarity, concreteness, ambiguity (literality), semantic transparency and figurativeness. They also had the task to describe the meaning of the German idioms and to rate their confidence about the attributed meaning. The aims of our study were (1) to provide descriptive norms for psycholinguistic and affective properties of a large set of idioms in German as a second language, (2) to explore the relationships between psycholinguistic and affective properties of idioms in German as a second language, and (3) to compare the ratings of the German native speakers studied in Citron et al. (2015) with the ratings of the Slovene second language learners from our study. On one hand, the results of the Slovene participants show many similarities with those of of the German native speakers, on the other hand, they show a slight positivity bias and slightly shallower emotional processing of the German idioms. Our study provides data that could be useful for future studies investigating the role of affect in figurative language in a second language setting (methodology, translation science, language technology).

scholarly journals Emotional processing of ironic vs. literal criticism in autistic and non-autistic adults: Evidence from eye-tracking

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mahsa Barzy ◽  
Ruth Filik ◽  
David Williams ◽  
Heather Jane Ferguson
Keyword(s):  
Emotional Processing ◽  
Real Life ◽  
Emotional Responses ◽  
Target Sentence ◽  
Emotional States ◽  
Typically Developing ◽  
Two Stage ◽  
Autistic People ◽  
Autistic Adults ◽  
Specific Difficulty

Typically developing (TD) adults are able to keep track of story characters’ emotional states online while reading. Filik et al. (2017) showed that initially, participants expected the victim to be more hurt by ironic comments than literal, but later considered them less hurtful; ironic comments were regarded as more amusing. We examined these processes in autistic adults, since previous research has demonstrated socio-emotional difficulties among autistic people, which may lead to problems processing irony and its related emotional processes despite an intact ability to integrate language in context. We recorded eye movements from autistic and non-autistic adults while they read narratives in which a character (the victim) was either criticised in an ironic or a literal manner by another character (the protagonist). A target sentence then either described the victim as feeling hurt/amused by the comment, or the protagonist as having intended to hurt/amused the victim by making the comment. Results from the non-autistic adults broadly replicated the key findings from Filik et al. (2017), supporting the two-stage account. Importantly, the autistic adults did not show comparable two-stage processing of ironic language; they did not differentiate between the emotional responses for victims or protagonists following ironic vs. literal criticism. These findings suggest that autistic people experience a specific difficulty taking into account other peoples’ communicative intentions (i.e. infer their mental state) to appropriately anticipate emotional responses to an ironic comment. We discuss how these difficulties might link to atypical socio-emotional processing in autism, and the ability to maintain successful real-life social interactions.

scholarly journals Relationship between systolic blood pressure and decision-making during emotional processing

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sophie Jacqueline Andree Betka ◽  
David Watson ◽  
Sarah N Garfinkel ◽  
Gaby Pfeifer ◽  
Henrique Sequeira ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Blood Pressure ◽  
Decision Making ◽  
Systolic Blood Pressure ◽  
Emotional Processing ◽  
Subjective Experience ◽  
Short Term Memory ◽  
Memory Task ◽  
Emotional States ◽  
Physiological Changes ◽  
The Impact

Objective: Emotional states are expressed in body and mind through subjective experience of physiological changes. In previous work, subliminal priming of anger prior to lexical decisions increased systolic blood pressure (SBP). This increase predicted the slowing of response times (RT), suggesting that baroreflex-related autonomic changes and their interoceptive (feedback) representations, influence cognition. Alexithymia is a subclinical affective dysfunction characterized by difficulty in identifying emotions. Atypical autonomic and interoceptive profiles are observed in alexithymia. Therefore, we sought to identify mechanisms through which SBP fluctuations during emotional processing might influence decision-making, including whether alexithymia contributes to this relationship. Methods Thirty-two male participants performed an affect priming paradigm and completed the Toronto Alexithymia Scale. Emotional faces were briefly presented (20ms) prior a short-term memory task. RT, accuracy and SBP were recorded on a trial-by-trial basis. Generalized mixed-effects linear models were used to evaluate the impact of emotion, physiological changes, alexithymia score, and their interactions, on performances. Results A main effect of emotion was observed on accuracy. Participants were more accurate on trials with anger primes, compared to neutral priming. Greater accuracy was related to increased SBP. An interaction between SBP and emotion was observed on RT: Increased SBP was associated with RT prolongation in the anger priming condition, yet this relationship was absent under the sadness priming. Alexithymia did not significantly moderate the above relationships. Conclusions Our data suggest that peripheral autonomic responses during affective challenges guide cognitive processes. We discuss our findings in the theoretical framework proposed by Lacey and Lacey (1970).

scholarly journals Emotional Valence Affects Word Retrieval During Verb Fluency Tasks in Alzheimer’s Dementia

2021 ◽  
Vol 12 ◽  
Author(s):  
Eun Jin Paek
Keyword(s):  
Verbal Memory ◽  
Emotional Processing ◽  
Neuropsychological Test ◽  
Emotional Valence ◽  
Memory Effects ◽  
Word Retrieval ◽  
Memory And Learning ◽  
Learning Abilities ◽  
Healthy Older Adults ◽  
Insight Into

Individuals with amnestic Alzheimer’s disease (AD) often demonstrate preserved emotional processing skills despite the neurodegenerative disease that affects their limbic system. Emotional valence encompasses the encoding and retrieval of memory and it also affects word retrieval in healthy populations, but it remains unclear whether these effects are preserved in individuals with amnestic AD. Previous studies used a variety of encoding procedures and different retrieval methods that resulted in mixed findings. Therefore, the purpose of the current study is to investigate whether emotional enhancement of memory effects is observed in an experimental condition where the memory encoding process is not required, namely verb (action) fluency tasks. Seventeen participants who were cognitively healthy older adults (CHOA) and 15 participants with amnestic AD were asked to complete verb fluency tasks, and the relative degree of emotional valence observed in their responses was compared between the two groups. A neuropsychological test battery was administered to determine the participants’ cognitive and linguistic profiles, and correlational analyses were conducted to delineate relationships between emotional valence, verbal memory, and learning abilities. The results indicated that the participants with amnestic AD produced words with higher emotional valence (i.e., more pleasant words) compared to CHOA during action fluency testing. In addition, the degree of emotional valence in the words was negatively correlated with verbal memory and learning skills, showing that those with poorer memory skills tend to retrieve words with higher emotional valence. The findings are consistent with those previous studies that stressed that individuals with AD have preserved emotional enhancement of memory effects and may benefit from them for retrieval of information, which may offer some insight into the development of novel rehabilitative strategies for this population.

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