Cognitive Control in Young and Older Adults: Does Mood Matter?

The dual mechanisms of control framework (DMC) proposes two modes of cognitive control: proactive and reactive control. In anticipation of an interference event, young adults primarily use a more proactive control mode, whereas older adults tend to use a more reactive one during the event, due to age-related deficits in working memory. The current study aimed to examine the effects of mood induction on cognitive control mode in older (ages 65+) compared to young adults (ages 18–30) with a standard letter-cue (Experiment 1) and a modified face-cue AX-CPT (Experiment 2). Mood induction into negative and/or positive mood versus neutral mood was conducted prior to the cognitive control task. Experiment 1 replicated the typical pattern of proactive control use in young adults and reactive control use in older adults. In Experiment 2, older adults showed comparable proactive control to young adults in their response time (RT). Mood induction showed little effect on cognitive control across the two experiments. These results did not reveal consistent effects of mood (negative or positive) on cognitive control mode in young and older adults, but discovered (or demonstrated) that older adults can engage proactive control when dichotomous face cues (female or male) are used in AX-CPT.

Virtual Reality and Emotion: A 5-Year Systematic Review of Empirical Research (2015-2019)

The central aim of this chapter is to identify how immersive VR can be used as a tool to inform our understanding of emotion and how emotion operates as a mechanism for VR effects. To accomplish this goal, we conducted a 5-year systematic review of the VR and emotion literature (2015-2019), while also reviewing seminal pieces from outside the 5-year timeframe to provide additional perspective on the more recent work. This decision to start the review in 2015 was purposeful in order to focus our review on recent, not historical trends in VR and emotion research, and to identify empirical studies that are concerned with three types of research: (1) the connection between VR and emotion from a emotion regulation perspective (e.g., mood induction, clinical applications), (2) studies that treat emotions as a mechanism to evaluate social or psychological phenomena, and (3) studies concerned with a deeper understanding of emotions or emotion theory. Our perspective draws on evidence from communication research, psychology, and human-computer interaction to achieve these aims. We ground our investigation in an overview of immersive VR and discuss current debates in emotion research. Finally, we attempt to make connections across fields by drawing on literature since 2015.

The Effect of Valenced Facial Expressions on Vertical Selective Attention

<p>Research using mood induction (Wapner, Werner & Krus, 1957) or positive/negative word stimuli, (Meier & Robinson, 2004) as well as studies using participants pre-existing neurotic/depressive symptoms (Meier & Robinson, 2006) have documented the ability of emotional stimuli and states to shift attention upwards (positive emotion) or downwards (negative emotion) in space. This study aimed to investigate whether this impact of emotion on vertical attention extended to briefly presented facial expressions. A within-subjects, modified version of Meier and Robinson’s (2004) Study 2 formed the design for these experiments. Experiments 1- 4 tested the ability of arrows, shapes and emotional facial expressions to shift vertical attention. Results indicate that for both schematic (Exp.2) and real (Exp. 4) faces, positive valence (happy expression) shifted attention upwards, but there was no evidence of the negative valence (sad expression) shifting attention downwards, giving partial support to the conceptual metaphor theory. No evidence of positive valence broadening - or negative valence narrowing - vertical attention was found in support of Fredrickson’s broaden-and-build theory (Exps.2 & 4). The current research has provided partial further support for the conceptual metaphor theory and advanced knowledge in the area of emotion and vertical attention using pictorial stimuli such as facial expressions. It also provides some direction for future research in this area, highlighting key issues to be resolved.</p>

The Effect of Valenced Facial Expressions on Vertical Selective Attention

<p>Research using mood induction (Wapner, Werner & Krus, 1957) or positive/negative word stimuli, (Meier & Robinson, 2004) as well as studies using participants pre-existing neurotic/depressive symptoms (Meier & Robinson, 2006) have documented the ability of emotional stimuli and states to shift attention upwards (positive emotion) or downwards (negative emotion) in space. This study aimed to investigate whether this impact of emotion on vertical attention extended to briefly presented facial expressions. A within-subjects, modified version of Meier and Robinson’s (2004) Study 2 formed the design for these experiments. Experiments 1- 4 tested the ability of arrows, shapes and emotional facial expressions to shift vertical attention. Results indicate that for both schematic (Exp.2) and real (Exp. 4) faces, positive valence (happy expression) shifted attention upwards, but there was no evidence of the negative valence (sad expression) shifting attention downwards, giving partial support to the conceptual metaphor theory. No evidence of positive valence broadening - or negative valence narrowing - vertical attention was found in support of Fredrickson’s broaden-and-build theory (Exps.2 & 4). The current research has provided partial further support for the conceptual metaphor theory and advanced knowledge in the area of emotion and vertical attention using pictorial stimuli such as facial expressions. It also provides some direction for future research in this area, highlighting key issues to be resolved.</p>

The effect of mood on food versus non-food interference among females who are high and low on emotional eating

Background Emotional eating refers to overeating triggered by emotional experiences and may cause significant psychological distress and health problems. Thus, it is important to better understand its underlying mechanisms. The study examined if the ability to ignore task-irrelevant information, namely, interference control, is modulated by mood and exposure to food stimuli among females who are high and low on emotional eating. Method The study’s sample included 80 women who were high (N = 40) or low (N = 40) on an emotional eating scale. Participants were divided to a negative or neutral mood induction group. Following the mood induction, they completed a food-flanker task that allowed assessing attentional interference caused by food and non-food stimuli separately. Results The low emotional eating group had significantly greater food compared to non-food interference, suggesting difficulty at ignoring food stimuli while attending a neutral target. In the high emotional eating group, there was no difference between food and non-food interference. However, higher levels of emotional eating predicted lower levels of food interference. Conclusion The pattern of results suggests a food-avoidance attentional tendency among those with higher levels of emotional eating. The mood manipulation did not influence food-related interference in either group. The lack of an effect of mood on food-related interference questions the impact of negative emotions on basic attentional processes among individuals with emotional eating.

Neutral and negative mood induction in executive tasks of working memory

The mood induction paradigm has been an important tool for investigating the effects of negative emotional states on working memory (WM) executive functions. Though some evidence showed that negative mood has a differential effect on verbal and visuospatial WM, other findings did not report a similar effect. To explore this issue, we examined the negative mood’s impact on verbal and visuospatial WM executive tasks based on grammatical reasoning and visuospatial rotation. Participants with no anxiety or depression disorders performed the tasks before and after negative (n = 14) or neutral (n = 13) mood induction. Participants’ mood at the beginning and the end of the session was assessed by the Present Mood States List (LEAP) and word valence rating. The analyses showed changes in the emotional state of the negative group (ps < .03) but not of the neutral group (ps > .83) in the LEAP instrument. No significant differences between groups were observed in the WM tasks (ps > .33). Performance in the visuospatial WM task improved after mood induction for both groups (p < .05), possibly due to a practice effect. In sum, our findings challenge the view that negative mood modulates WM executive functions; thus, they were discussed considering the similarities and differences between studies that found negative mood effects on WM and those that did not find. Different WM tasks tap distinct processes and components, which may underlie behavioral effects of negative mood on WM tasks.

Autobiographical Script-Driven Imagery Has No Detectable Effect on Emotion Regulation in Healthy Individuals

<b><i>Introduction:</i></b> Emotion regulation (ER), the ability to actively modulate one’s own emotion reactions, likely depends on the individual’s current emotional state. Here, we investigated whether negative emotions induced by an interpersonal autobiographic script affect the neuronal processes underlying ER. <b><i>Methods:</i></b> Twenty healthy participants were recruited and underwent functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) during performance of distancing, a specific ER strategy, while viewing emotionally arousing pictures. Participants were instructed to either naturally experience (“permit” condition) or to actively downregulate (“regulate” condition) their emotional responses to the presented stimuli. Before each of the 4 runs in total, a neutral or negative autobiographical audio script was presented. The negative script comprised an emotionally negative event from childhood or adolescence that represented either emotional abuse or emotional neglect. The second event comprised an everyday neutral situation. We aimed at identifying the neural correlates of ER and their modulation by script-driven imagery. <b><i>Results:</i></b> fMRI analyses testing for greater responses in the “regulate” than the “permit” condition replicated previously reported neural correlates of ER in the right dorsolateral prefrontal cortex and the right inferior parietal lobule. A significant ER effect was also observed in the left orbitofrontal cortex. In the amygdala, we found greater responses in the “permit” compared to the “regulate” condition. We did not observe a significant modulation of the ER effects in any of these regions by the negative emotional state induced by autobiographical scripts. Bayesian statistics confirmed the absence of such modulations by providing marginal evidence for null effects. <b><i>Discussion:</i></b> While we replicated previously reported neural correlates of ER, we found no evidence for an effect of mood induction with individualized autobiographical scripts on the neural processes underlying ER in healthy participants.

Keep calm and manage impulsivity: Mood as a modulator of impulsive behaviour

This study investigated how different mood states affect distinct subtypes of impulsivity: motor impulsivity [measured with the Stop Signal (SST) and the 5-Choice Serial Reaction Time Task (5-CSRTT)], reflection impulsivity [assessed with the Information Sampling Task (IST)], and temporal impulsivity (the Delay Discounting Questionnaire). Eighty healthy volunteers completed two experimental sessions. During session 1, which served as a baseline measure, participants underwent a neutral mood induction procedure. In Session 2, they were randomly allocated to one of the mood-induction groups (Neutral, Positive, Sad, and Anxiety). Mood state ratings included bipolar visual analogue scales on mood (positive/negative), tension/relaxation and arousal (tired/active). No group effect was found on any of the impulsivity measures.24 Correlational analyses between mood changes (following the mood manipulation procedures) and behaviour in the tasks revealed that increased relaxation was related to increased information sampling in the IST (decreased reflection impulsivity). In addition, the more active subjects reported to be, the more likely they were to choose a delayed reward over the immediate one (decreased temporal impulsivity). These results indicate that subjective changes in mood state are associated with behavioural impulsivity levels. Importantly, distinct facets of impulsivity (reflection, motor and temporal) are differently affected by changes in mood state.

A-145 Tunnel Vision: A Novel Investigation of the Effect of Depression on Field of View

Objective This study examined the effects of depression on field of view and memory as it relates to cognitive remittance of depression. Depressed individuals possess a negativity bias producing a narrowed field of view, attentional bias, and enhanced memory for negative emotional information. Methods The study investigated whether formerly depressed (remitted) individuals are truly cognitively remitted and display the same emotional and attention inhibitions and memory as depressed individuals, specifically under a negatively mood induced state. Female participants aged 39–85 were grouped into non-depressed (healthy) and remitted categories. The study followed a 3-day testing procedure which included diagnostic verification on the first day, and eye-tracking methods on the second and third day looking at a series of emotionally valenced images. The study employed a 2 x 3 x 2 mixed model ANOVA. Results Results suggested that remitted individuals possess a narrower field of view, especially when subjected to a negative mood induction as seen in Figure 1. Results also suggested that a negative mood induction results in greater visual exploration (attention) to negatively valenced information for formerly depressed individuals. Results showed that remitted individuals continued to demonstrate significantly different viewing patterns (i.e., saccade amplitudes and number of fixations) to emotionally valenced information under a negative mood induction but, this did not impact recognition memory. Conclusion Taken together, the results of the study support the idea that formerly depressed individuals experience a perceptual and cognitive tunnel vision that elaborates on their inhibited negative cognitive schemas and puts them at risk for relapse into further episodes of depression.