The interaction of emotional and cognitive neural systems in emotionally guided response inhibition

Inhibitory control of gait initiation in humans: An electroencephalography study

Response inhibition is a crucial component of executive control. Although mainly studied in upper limb tasks, it is fully implicated in gait initiation. Here, we assessed the influence of proactive and reactive inhibitory control during gait initiation in healthy adult participants. For this purpose, we measured kinematics and electroencephalography (EEG) activity (event-related potential [ERP] and time-frequency data) during a modified Go/NoGo gait initiation task in 23 healthy adults. The task comprised Go-certain, Go-uncertain, and NoGo conditions. Each trial included preparatory and imperative stimuli. Our results showed that go-uncertainty resulted in delayed reaction time, without any difference for the other parameters of gait initiation. Proactive inhibition, that is, Go uncertain versus Go certain conditions, influenced EEG activity as soon as the preparatory stimulus. Moreover, both proactive and reactive inhibition influenced the amplitude of the ERPs (central P1, occipito-parietal N1, and N2/P3) and theta and alpha/low beta band activities in response to the imperative-Go-uncertain versus Go-certain and NoGo versus Go-uncertain-stimuli. These findings demonstrate that the uncertainty context; induced proactive inhibition, as reflected in delayed gait initiation. Proactive and reactive inhibition elicited extended and overlapping modulations of ERP and time-frequency activities. This study shows the protracted influence of inhibitory control in gait initiation.

The bidirectional influence between emotional language and inhibitory control in Chinese: An ERP study

The bidirectional influence between emotional language and inhibitory processes has been studied in alphabetic languages, highlighting the need for additional investigation in nonalphabetic languages to explore potential cross-linguistic differences. The present ERP study investigated the bidirectional influence in the context of Mandarin, a language with unique linguistic features and neural substrates. In Experiment 1, emotional adjectives preceded the Go/NoGo cue. The ERPs revealed that negative emotional language facilitated inhibitory control. In Experiment 2, with a Go/NoGo cue preceding the emotional language, the study confirmed that inhibitory control facilitated the semantic integration of negative language in Chinese, whereas the inhibited state may not affect deeper refinement of the emotional content. However, no interaction was observed in positive emotional language processing. These results suggest an interaction between inhibitory control and negative emotional language processing in Chinese, supporting the integrative emotion-cognition view.

The role of pre-supplementary motor cortex in action control with emotional stimuli: A repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation study

Swiftly halting ongoing motor actions is essential to react to unforeseen and potentially perilous circumstances. However, the neural bases subtending the complex interplay between emotions and motor control have been scarcely investigated. Here, we used an emotional stop signal task (SST) to investigate whether specific neural circuits engaged by action suppression are differently modulated by emotional signals with respect to neutral ones. Participants performed an SST before and after the administration of one session of repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation (rTMS) over the pre-supplementary motor cortex (pre-SMA), the right inferior frontal gyrus (rIFG), and the left primary motor cortex (lM1). Results show that rTMS over the pre-SMA improved the ability to inhibit prepotent action (i.e., better action control) when emotional stimuli were presented. In contrast, action control in a neutral context was fostered by rTMS over the rIFG. No changes were observed after lM1 stimulation. Intriguingly, individuals with higher impulsivity traits exhibited enhanced motor control when facing neutral stimuli following rIFG stimulation. These results further our understanding of the interplay between emotions and motor functions, shedding light on the selective modulation of neural pathways underpinning these processes.

Unraveling how the adolescent brain deals with criticism using dynamic causal modeling

Sensitivity to criticism, which can be defined as a negative evaluation that a person receives from someone else, is considered a risk factor for the development of psychiatric disorders in adolescents. They may be more vulnerable to social evaluation than adults and exhibit more inadequate emotion regulation strategies such as rumination. The neural network involved in dealing with criticism in adolescents may serve as a biomarker for vulnerability to depression. However, the directions of the functional interactions between the brain regions within this neural network in adolescents are still unclear. In this study, 64 healthy adolescents (aged 14 to 17 years) were asked to listen to a series of self-referential auditory segments, which included negative (critical), positive (praising), and neutral conditions, during fMRI scanning. Dynamic Causal Modeling (DCM) with Parametric Empirical Bayesian (PEB) analysis was performed to map the interactions within the neural network that was engaged during the processing of these segments. Three regions were identified to form the interaction network: the left pregenual anterior cingulate cortex (pgACC), the left dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC), and the right precuneus (preCUN). We quantified the modulatory effects of exposure to criticism and praise on the effective connectivity between these brain regions. Being criticized was found to significantly inhibit the effective connectivity from the preCUN to the DLPFC. Adolescents who scored high on the Perceived Criticism Measure (PCM) showed less inhibition of the preCUN-to-DLPFC connectivity when being criticized, which may indicate that they required more engagement of the Central Executive Network (which includes the DLPFC) to sufficiently disengage from negative self-referential processing. Furthermore, the inhibitory connectivity from the DLPFC to the pgACC was strengthened by exposure to praise as well as criticism, suggesting a recruitment of cognitive control over emotional responses when dealing with positive and negative evaluative feedback. Our novel findings contribute to a more profound understanding of how criticism affects the adolescent brain and can help to identify potential biomarkers for vulnerability to develop mood disorders before or during adulthood.

Gray matter alterations in adolescent major depressive disorder and adolescent bipolar disorder

BACKGROUND

Gray matter volume (GMV) alterations in several emotion-related brain areas are implicated in mood disorders, but findings have been inconsistent in adolescents with major depressive disorder (MDD) or bipolar disorder (BD).

METHODS

We conducted a comprehensive meta-analysis of 35 region-of-interest (ROI) and 18 whole-brain voxel-based morphometry (VBM) MRI studies in adolescent MDD and adolescent BD, and indirectly compared the results in the two groups. The effects of age, sex, and other demographic and clinical scale scores were explored using meta-regression analysis.

RESULTS

In the ROI meta-analysis, right putamen volume was decreased in adolescents with MDD, while bilateral amygdala volume was decreased in adolescents with BD compared to healthy controls (HC). In the whole-brain VBM meta-analysis, GMV was increased in right middle frontal gyrus and decreased in left caudate in adolescents with MDD compared to HC, while in adolescents with BD, GMV was increased in left superior frontal gyrus and decreased in limbic regions compared with HC. MDD vs BD comparison revealed volume alteration in the prefrontal-limbic system.

LIMITATION

Different clinical features limit the comparability of the samples, and small sample size and insufficient clinical details precluded subgroup analysis or meta-regression analyses of these variables.

CONCLUSIONS

Distinct patterns of GMV alterations in adolescent MDD and adolescent BD could help to differentiate these two populations and provide potential diagnostic biomarkers.

Distinct neurocognitive mechanisms underlying learning and representations of symbols of life and death

Life and death are 2 fundamental concepts regarding existence of organisms. People often signify these concepts using symbols to facilitate communications, but how the brain learns and represents these symbols remains unclear. In the present study, we quantified behavioral and brain responses during learning associations between words ("life" or "death") with shapes as concrete referents. Behavioral responses to word-shape pairs showed an affirmative response bias to life-shape pairs but a denial response bias to death-shape pairs. Multimodal brain imaging results revealed that the right frontal and dorsal cingulate cortices monitored these response biases, respectively. Moreover, relative to unlearned shapes, life-related shapes induced increased alpha (9-14 Hz) oscillations in the right parietal cortex and precuneus, whereas death-related shapes enhanced beta (15-30 Hz) oscillations in the left parietal cortex, superior temporal sulcus, and precuneus. Our findings unraveled distinct neurocognitive mechanisms underlying learning and representations of concrete referents of life and death concepts.

Function without feeling: neural reactivity and intercommunication during flexible motor adjustments evoked by emotional and neutral stimuli

Motor conflicts arise when we need to quickly overwrite prepotent behavior. It has been proposed that affective stimuli modulate the neural processing of motor conflicts. However, previous studies have come to inconsistent conclusions regarding the neural impact of affective information on conflict processing. We employed functional magnetic resonance imaging during a Go/Change-Go task, where motor conflicts were either evoked by neutral or emotionally negative stimuli. Dynamic causal modeling was used to investigate how motor conflicts modulate the intercommunication between the anterior cingulate cortex (ACC) and the anterior insula (AI) as 2 central regions for cognitive control. Conflicts compared to standard actions were associated with increased BOLD activation in several brain areas, including the dorsal ACC and anterior insula. There were no differences in neural activity between emotional and non-emotional conflict stimuli. Conflicts compared to standard actions lowered neural self-inhibition of the ACC and AI and led to increased effective connectivity from the ACC to AI contralateral to the acting hand. Thus, our study indicates that neural conflict processing is primarily driven by the functional relevance of action-related stimuli, not their inherent affective meaning. Furthermore, it sheds light on the role of interconnectivity between ACC and AI for the implementation of flexible behavioral change.

The inter-relationships of the neural basis of rumination and inhibitory control: neuroimaging-based meta-analyses

Rumination, as a clinical manifestation and pathogenic factor of depression, has long been the focus of psychological research regarding its causes and ameliorating approaches. Behavioral studies have shown that rumination is related to inhibitory control deficits, which provides ideas for reducing it. However, the neural relationship between them has not been clearly discussed. In this study, we first used multi-level kernel density analysis to conduct two meta-analyses of published functional magnetic resonance imaging studies: one was rumination comprising 17 studies with 180 foci, and the other was inhibitory control comprising 205 studies with 3791 foci. Conjunction analysis was then performed to explore the common brain regions and further decode them through Neurosynth to confirm the cognitive specificity. Results showed that rumination was mainly related to the default mode network (DMN), while inhibitory control was associated with the frontoparietal network (FPN). In addition, the common activation areas were mainly concentrated in the bilateral precuneus, right superior frontal gyrus, bilateral median cingulate, paracingulate gyri, and the left triangular part of inferior frontal gyrus (IFG). Decoding results also revealed they were involved in inhibition, memory retrieval, and self-related processes. Our findings support that rumination is associated with inhibitory control and can be explained neurologically by an antagonistic relationship between the DMN and FPN. In sum, inhibitory control may be related to rumination via inhibiting task-unrelated attention and controlling self-related processing. This research will help us understand and predict rumination from the perspective of inhibitory control and reduce rumination through behavioral training of inhibitory control or the application of neuromodulation techniques to common activation regions.

Ignore the faces: Neural characterisation of emotional inhibition from childhood to adulthood using MEG

The ability to effectively and automatically regulate one's response to emotional information is a basic, fundamental skill for social functioning. The neural mechanisms underlying emotion regulation processing have been assessed, however few investigations have leveraged neurophysiological techniques, particularly magnetoencephalography (MEG) to determine the development of this critical ability. The current MEG study is the first to examine developmental changes in the neural mechanisms supporting automatic emotion regulation. We used an emotional go/no-go task with happy and angry faces in a single-site cohort of 97 healthy participants, 4-40 years of age. We found age-related changes as a function of emotion and condition in brain regions key to emotion regulation, including the right inferior frontal gyrus, orbitofrontal cortices and primarily right-lateralized temporal areas. Interaction effects, including an age by emotion and condition, were also found in the left angular gyrus, an area critical in emotion regulation and attention. Findings demonstrate protracted and nonlinear development, due to the adolescent group, of emotion regulation processing from child to adulthood, and highlight that age-related differences in emotion regulation are modulated by emotional face type.

Better living through understanding the insula: Why subregions can make all the difference

Insula function is considered critical for many motivated behaviors, with proposed functions ranging from attention, behavioral control, emotional regulation, goal-directed and aversion-resistant responding. Further, the insula is implicated in many neuropsychiatric conditions including substance abuse. More recently, multiple insula subregions have been distinguished based on anatomy, connectivity, and functional contributions. Generally, posterior insula is thought to encode more somatosensory inputs, which integrate with limbic/emotional information in middle insula, that in turn integrate with cognitive processes in anterior insula. Together, these regions provide rapid interoceptive information about the current or predicted situation, facilitating autonomic recruitment and quick, flexible action. Here, we seek to create a robust foundation from which to understand potential subregion differences, and provide direction for future studies. We address subregion differences across humans and rodents, so that the latter's mechanistic interventions can best mesh with clinical relevance of human conditions. We first consider the insula's suggested roles in humans, then compare subregional studies, and finally describe rodent work. One primary goal is to encourage precision in describing insula subregions, since imprecision (e.g. including both posterior and anterior studies when describing insula work) does a disservice to a larger understanding of insula contributions. Additionally, we note that specific task details can greatly impact recruitment of various subregions, requiring care and nuance in design and interpretation of studies. Nonetheless, the central ethological importance of the insula makes continued research to uncover mechanistic, mood, and behavioral contributions of paramount importance and interest. This article is part of the special Issue on 'Neurocircuitry Modulating Drug and Alcohol Abuse'.

Spontaneous eye blink rate mediates the relationship between sleepiness and impulsivity to negative stimuli

Previous studies have demonstrated that sleep deprivation results in a negativity bias, especially in the context of impaired response inhibition. In the present study we investigated spontaneous eye blink rate (EBR), a correlate of dopamine function, as a mediator of the relationship between subjective sleepiness and impulsivity toward negative stimuli on a Go/NoGo task. Participants rated their sleepiness on a number of measures including the Epworth Sleepiness Scale (ESS), the Karolinska Sleepiness Scale (KSS) and subscales of the Chronic Sleep Reduction Questionnaire (CSRQ). The findings revealed that EBR mediated the relationship between sleepiness as measured by the Karolinska Sleepiness Scale (KSS) and commission errors on negatively valanced stimuli. These findings suggest that reduced inhibition in responding to negative stimuli can be found as a function of subjective sleepiness and that changes in dopamine function may be one contributing factor explaining this relationship.

Baseline Functional Connectivity in Resting State Networks Associated with Depression and Remission Status after 16 Weeks of Pharmacotherapy: A CAN-BIND Report

Understanding the neural underpinnings of major depressive disorder (MDD) and its treatment could improve treatment outcomes. So far, findings are variable and large sample replications scarce. We aimed to replicate and extend altered functional connectivity associated with MDD and pharmacotherapy outcomes in a large, multisite sample. Resting-state fMRI data were collected from 129 patients and 99 controls through the Canadian Biomarker Integration Network in Depression. Symptoms were assessed with the Montgomery-Åsberg Depression Rating Scale (MADRS). Connectivity was measured as correlations between four seeds (anterior and posterior cingulate cortex, insula and dorsolateral prefrontal cortex) and all other brain voxels. Partial least squares was used to compare connectivity prior to treatment between patients and controls, and between patients reaching remission (MADRS ≤ 10) early (within 8 weeks), late (within 16 weeks), or not at all. We replicated previous findings of altered connectivity in patients. In addition, baseline connectivity of the anterior/posterior cingulate and insula seeds differentiated patients with different treatment outcomes. The stability of these differences was established in the largest single-site subsample. Our replication and extension of altered connectivity highlighted previously reported and new differences between patients and controls, and revealed features that might predict remission prior to pharmacotherapy. Trial registration:  ClinicalTrials.gov: NCT01655706.

Segregating domain-general from emotional context-specific inhibitory control systems - ventral striatum and orbitofrontal cortex serve as emotion-cognition integration hubs

Inhibitory control hierarchically regulates cognitive and emotional systems in the service of adaptive goal-directed behavior across changing task demands and environments. While previous studies convergently determined the contribution of prefrontal-striatal systems to general inhibitory control, findings on the specific circuits that mediate emotional context-specific impact on inhibitory control remained inconclusive. Against this background we combined an evaluated emotional Go/No Go task with fMRI in a large cohort of subjects (N=250) to segregate brain systems and circuits that mediate domain-general from emotion-specific inhibitory control. Particularly during a positive emotional context, behavioral results showed a lower accuracy for No Go trials and a faster response time for Go trials. While the dorsal striatum and lateral frontal regions were involved in inhibitory control irrespective of emotional context, activity in the ventral striatum (VS) and medial orbitofrontal cortex (mOFC) varied as a function of emotional context. On the voxel-wise whole-brain network level, limbic and striatal systems generally exhibited highest changes in global brain connectivity during inhibitory control, while global brain connectivity of the left mOFC was less decreased during emotional contexts. Functional connectivity analyses moreover revealed that negative coupling between the VS with inferior frontal gyrus (IFG)/insula and mOFC varied as a function of emotional context. Together these findings indicate separable domain- general as well as emotional context-specific inhibitory brain systems which specifically encompass the VS and its connections with frontal regions.

The effects of emotional stimuli and oxytocin on inhibition ability and response execution in macaque monkeys

Social and emotional content of environmental stimuli influence executive control of behavior. There has been a great variability in the behavioral effects of emotional stimuli in humans. These variabilities might arise from other contextual factors, such as specific task demands or natural hormones, which potentially interact with emotional stimuli in modulating executive functions. This study aimed at examining the effects of social-emotional visual stimuli and a natural hormone (oxytocin) on inhibition ability and response execution of macaque monkeys. In a crossover design, monkeys received inhaled oxytocin or its vehicle before performing a stop-signal task in which they must respond rapidly to a visual go-cue in Go trials but inhibit the initiated response following the onset of a stop-cue in Stop trials. The social-emotional content (negative, positive or neutral) of the go-cue was changed trial-by-trial. We found that monkeys' inhibition ability was significantly influenced by the social-emotional content of stimuli and appeared as an enhanced inhibition ability when monkeys were exposed to negative stimuli. However, response execution was not influenced by the emotional content of stimuli in the current or preceding trials. The same dose of oxytocin, which modulated working memory in monkeys, had no significant effect on the inhibition ability, but significantly decreased monkeys' response time regardless of the stimulus valence. Our findings indicate that emotional stimuli, valence dependently, influence monkeys' inhibition ability but not their response execution and suggest that oxytocin might attenuate reorientation of cognitive resources to the task irrelevant emotional information.

Impulse control under emotion processing: an fMRI investigation in borderline personality disorder compared to non-patients and cluster-C personality disorder patients

Impulsivity is a characteristic syndromal and neurobehavioral feature of borderline personality disorder (BPD). Research suggests an important interaction between high negative emotions and low behavioral inhibition in BPD. However, knowledge about the generalizability across stimulus categories and diagnosis specificity is limited. We investigated neural correlates of hypothesized impaired response inhibition of BPD patients to negative, positive and erotic stimuli, by comparing them to non-patients and cluster-C personality disorder patients. During fMRI scanning, 53 BPD patients, 34 non-patients and 20 cluster-C personality disorder patients completed an affective go/no-go task, including social pictures. BPD patients showed more omission errors than non-patients, independent of the stimulus category. Furthermore, BPD patients showed higher activity in the inferior parietal lobule and frontal eye fields when inhibiting negative versus neutral stimuli. Activity of the inferior parietal lobule correlated positively with the BPD checklist subscale impulsivity. When inhibiting emotional stimuli, BPD patients showed an altered brain activity in the inferior parietal lobe and frontal eye fields, whereas previously shown dysfunctional prefrontal activity was not replicated. BPD patients showed a general responsivity across stimulus categories in the frontal eye fields, whereas effects in the inferior parietal lobe were specific for negative stimuli. Results of diagnosis specificity support a dimensional rather than a categorical differentiation between BPD and cluster-C patients during inhibition of social emotional stimuli. Supported by behavioral results, BPD patients showed no deficiencies in emotionally modulated response inhibition per se but the present findings rather hint at attentional difficulties for emotional information.

Vertebral bone marrow edema in magnetic resonance imaging correlates with bone healing histomorphometry in (sub)acute osteoporotic vertebral compression fracture

BACKGROUND

BME on MRI has become the gold standard for the diagnosis of acute/subacute OVCF, but the correlation between the quantitative model of BME and histopathological manifestations of OVCF is rarely discussed in the literature.

OBJECTIVES

This study aimed to retrospectively investigate the relationship between bone marrow edema (BME) in magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) and bone healing histomorphometry in (sub)acute osteoporotic vertebral compression fracture.

METHODS

According to the period since fracture, 125 patients were divided into four stages: stage I (0 to 15 days), stage II (16 to 30 days), stage III (31 to 60 days) and stage IV (61 to 90 days). Bone marrow edema was evaluated by the signal changes and intensity patterns on MRI sagittal images. Decalcified biopsy specimens were obtained from the cancellous bone core in the fractured vertebral body. The histomorphometry study results were analyzed by light microscopy using grid analysis and defined using bone histomorphometry criteria.

RESULTS

There were 70 (56%) patients in stage I, 29 (23.2%) in stage II, 12 (9.6%) in stage III and 14 (11.2%) in stage IV. BME and histomorphometry characteristics differentiated from each other stage: The BME percentage had a significantly negative correlation with the ratio of osteoid volume/bone volume (r =  - 0.539, p = 0.001) and the ratio of woven bone volume/tissue volume (r =  - 0.584, p = 0.001). There was also a positive correlation between the BME percentage and the ratio of fibrous tissue volume/tissue volume (r = 0.488, p = 0.001).

CONCLUSIONS

Bone marrow edema significantly correlates with bone morphology parameters after vertebral fracture. The characteristics of histomorphological changes during fracture healing process can be preliminarily determined by observing the edema signal.

A performance-based measure of emotion response control: A preliminary MRI study

Identifying performance-based assessments of emotion regulation is needed for the study of myriad mood and neurological disorders. Color and form responses on the Rorschach Inkblot Method are valid measures of emotion response control, but have not been studied in relation to known neural correlations of emotion regulation. A discrepancy of color (CF + C) greater than form (FC) responses suggests low cognitive control over emotional responses. This preliminary report explores the discrepancy between form-color responses as a correlate of regional cortical thickness. A sample of community-dwelling adults were administered the Rorschach Inkblot Method and participated in a structural MRI scan. Greater middle frontal cortex thickness was associated with a positive discrepancy score [(CF + C) - FC], indicating less emotion response control (r_s  = 0.48, p < 0.05); a moderate, non-significant correlation was also observed with insula cortex (r_s  = 0.42, p = 0.07).The results provide evidence in support of the Rorschach Inkblot Method as a valid behavioral measure of emotion response control. More specifically, these results support the use of color-related variables included in contemporary evidence-based Rorschach methods. The results are discussed with implications for the study of emotion regulation in mood disorders and sensitivity analyses based on the observed effect sizes are reported to inform future study planning.

Gender-related difference in altered fractional amplitude of low-frequency fluctuations after electroacupuncture on primary insomnia patients: A resting-state fMRI study

BACKGROUND

Primary insomnia (PI) is defined as a sleep disorder with no definite cause or inducement. Electroacupuncture, a treatment of inserting needles into specific points on the body surface and applying electrical stimulation, has been proved effective in treating PI with minimal adverse effects. However, the influence of gender difference on the clinical treatment efficacy of electroacupuncture for PI patients remains unclear. Therefore, we designed a clinical trial to compare the clinical treatment efficacy of electroacupuncture for PI patients with different genders. The research on the mechanism of electroacupuncture suggested it could modulate the sleep and wakefulness by activating or deactivating brain regions via a needling/tactile somatosensory specific stimulus. Therefore, we also designed a resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging (rs-fMRI) study to detect the spontaneous brain activity of PI patients before and after the electroacupuncture treatment.

METHOD

Thirty PI patients were recruited to accept 5-week electroacupuncture treatment on HT-7. Athens Insomnia Scale (AIS) and Pittsburgh sleep quality index (PSQI) questionnaires were used to evaluate the clinical treatment efficacy. Rs-fMRI was employed to observe the spontaneous brain activity in the resting state at the baseline and after 5 weeks of electroacupuncture treatment, which was measured by the fractional amplitude of low-frequency fluctuations (fALFF).

RESULT

The AIS and PSQI scores were significantly decreased both in the female PI group and the male PI group after treatment. The decreased PSQI of female patients was significantly more than that of male patients (p < .05). The gender-related difference in the cerebral response to electroacupuncture was mainly in posterior cingulate and supramarginal gyrus.

CONCLUSION

There is a gender-related difference in the clinical treatment efficacy of electroacupuncture for PI patients, and female patients may benefit more from electroacupuncture. Gender-related differences in the cerebral response to electroacupuncture may be one of the factors affecting clinical treatment efficacy.

Neural divergence and convergence for attention to and detection of interoceptive and somatosensory stimuli

Body awareness is constructed by signals originating from within and outside the body. How do these apparently divergent signals converge? We developed a signal detection task to study the neural convergence and divergence of interoceptive and somatosensory signals. Participants focused on either cardiac or tactile events and reported their presence or absence. Beyond some evidence of divergence, we observed a robust overlap in the pattern of activation evoked across both conditions in frontal areas including the insular cortex, as well as parietal and occipital areas, and for both attention and detection of these signals. Psycho-physiological interaction analysis revealed that right insular cortex connectivity was modulated by the conscious detection of cardiac compared to somatosensory sensations, with greater connectivity to occipito-parietal regions when attending to cardiac signals. Our findings speak in favour of the inherent convergence of bodily-related signals and move beyond the apparent antagonism between exteroception and interoception.

Differences in Behavioral Inhibitory Control in Response to Angry and Happy Emotions Among College Students With and Without Suicidal Ideation: An ERP Study

Suicidal ideation is one of the strongest predictors of suicide. A large number of studies have illustrated the important effect of impulsivity on suicidal ideation, and behavioral inhibitory control (BIC) is a specific manifestation of impulsivity. The goal of the present study is to evaluate the difference in BIC in response to happy and angry emotions between individuals with or without suicidal ideation to reveal the underlying mechanism of the effect of impulsivity on suicidal ideation when accounting for the effect of emotion. Combining the ERP technique and the two-choice oddball paradigm, a total of 70 college students were recruited to participate in this study. The Beck Scale for Suicidal Ideation–Chinese Version was used to identify whether the participants had suicidal ideation. There were 30 participants in the risky-suicidal ideation (SI) group and 19 participants in the non-suicidal ideation (NSI) group. The results showed that the reaction time of the SI group was longer than that of the NSI group for happy emotions. At the electrophysiological level, the P3 amplitude of the NSI group was larger than that of the SI group regardless of the electrode sites and valence, and the P3 component elicited by angry faces was larger than those elicited by happy faces in the SI group. These findings suggest that individuals without suicidal ideation have better BIC, and the SI group has more difficulty controlling their responses to happy emotions than their responses to angry emotions.

Response Inhibition, Response Execution, and Emotion Regulation among Children with Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder

Attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) is associated with deficits in response inhibition, response execution, and emotion regulation. However, the nature of the associations among these deficits remains unclear. Thus, this study examines these associations using a multi-method design. One hundred sixty-six children (aged 5-13 years; 66.3% male; 75 with ADHD) completed two conditions (i.e., neutral and fear) of an emotional go/no-go task. Parasympathetic-based regulation was indexed via respiratory sinus arrhythmia (RSA), and sympathetic-based reactivity was indexed via cardiac pre-ejection period (PEP). Overall, children exhibited more difficulty with response execution (i.e., more omission errors, fewer correct go responses) and less difficulty with response inhibition (i.e., fewer commission errors, more correct no-go responses) during the fear condition than the neutral condition. Children with ADHD displayed more difficulty with response execution during the fear condition compared to typically developing youth. Additionally, children with ADHD displayed parasympathetic-based dysregulation (i.e., RSA increase from baseline) and reduced sympathetic-based reactivity (i.e., PEP lengthening) compared to typically developing youth across task conditions. In sum, children with ADHD demonstrate greater difficulty with response execution during emotionally salient contexts, as well as parasympathetic-based emotion dysregulation. Future work should examine these associations longitudinally with the aim of predicting impairment and treatment response in youth with ADHD.

Positive information facilitates response inhibition in older adults only when emotion is task-relevant

Emotional information is integral to everyday life and impacts a variety of cognitive abilities including response inhibition, a critical skill for maintaining appropriate and flexible behaviour. However, reported effects of emotion on response inhibition are inconsistent in younger adults, and very limited in older adults. Effects of aging are especially relevant because emotion regulation improves with aging despite declining inhibitory control over neutral information. Across three studies, we assessed the impact of emotional facial expressions on response inhibition in younger and older adults while manipulating attention to task stimuli. Emotional faces (versus neutral faces) altered response inhibition only when task instructions required explicit attention to emotional attributes of the faces. When directly comparing fear faces to happy faces, both age groups had better response inhibition to happy faces. Age further influenced differences across conditions, in that happy faces enhanced response inhibition relative to neutral faces in older adults but not younger adults. Thus, emotional response inhibition for task-relevant (but not task-irrelevant) positive information is enhanced in late life compared to early adulthood. The present work extends the nascent literature on emotional response inhibition in aging, and proffers a framework to reconcile the mixed literature on this topic in younger adults.

Emotionally valenced stimuli impact response inhibition in those with substance use disorder and co-occurring anxiety and depression symptoms

BACKGROUND

Substance use disorder (SUD) is associated with impaired response inhibition. Given the deficits in emotion regulation associated with SUD, it is unclear if this impairment is exacerbated by emotionally valenced stimuli. Co-occurring conditions may further exacerbate these impairments as many co-occurring conditions further impact emotion regulation. It was hypothesized that negative stimuli may further impact response inhibition for this population.

METHODS

The current study used the stop-signal task to examine response inhibition to negative, neutral and positive stimuli in a sample of those with a history of SUD and co-occurring depression and anxiety symptoms.

RESULTS

Response inhibition was poorer for negative stimuli relative to neutral stimuli. There was no difference between negative and positive stimuli. Depression severity moderated the difference between response inhibition for negative and neutral stimuli. At elevated depression, response inhibition was worse and there was no difference across emotional stimuli. At low depression, there was a significant difference between negative and neutral stimuli. This effect was not found for anxiety symptoms.

LIMITATIONS

Study participants presented with polysubstance use of varying duration and amount. It is unclear whether findings are attributed to specific substances, or substance use broadly. Additionally, happy, angry, and calm facial emotions were used to represent positive, negative, and neutral valences respectively. It is unclear whether these findings are generalizable to other emotional expressions.

CONCLUSION

Results suggested that emotionally valenced stimuli affected response inhibition among those with low symptom severity. At elevated symptom severity, response inhibition to all stimuli were impaired.

Multi-domain Features of the Non-phase-locked Component of Interest Extracted from ERP Data by Tensor Decomposition

The waveform in the time domain, spectrum in the frequency domain, and topography in the space domain of component(s) of interest are the fundamental indices in neuroscience research. Despite the application of time–frequency analysis (TFA) to extract the temporal and spectral characteristics of non-phase-locked component (NPLC) of interest simultaneously, the statistical results are not always expectedly satisfying, in that the spatial information is not considered. Complex Morlet wavelet transform is widely applied to TFA of event-related-potential (ERP) data, and mother wavelet (which should be firstly defined by center frequency and bandwidth (CFBW) before using the method to TFA of ERP data) influences the time–frequency results. In this study, an optimal set of CFBW was firstly selected from the number sets of CFBW, to further analyze for TFA of the ERP data in a cognitive experiment paradigm of emotion (Anger and Neutral) and task (Go and Nogo). Then tensor decomposition algorithm was introduced to investigate the NPLC of interest from the fourth-order tensor. Compared with the TFA results which only revealed a significant difference between Go and Nogo task condition, the tensor-based analysis showed significant interaction effect between emotion and task. Moreover, significant differences were found in both emotion and task conditions through tensor decomposition. In addition, the statistical results of TFA would be affected by the selected region of interest (ROI), whereas those of the proposed method were not subject to ROI. Hence, this study demonstrated that tensor decomposition method was effective in extracting NPLC, by considering spatial information simultaneously as the potential to explore the brain mechanisms related to experimental design.

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

Whether 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.

Stimulating the left dorsolateral prefrontal cortex improves the memory representation of threats among individuals with high avoidant attachment

Prior research has suggested that individuals with high avoidant attachment may demonstrate a vigilant attentional bias and selective attentional avoidance towards attachment-related negative information (threat information). Similarly, some evidence suggests that impairment of hot working memory (WM) or emotional-related WM occurs in highly avoidant individuals. Moreover, functional MRI studies have demonstrated that the less-activated left dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (L-DLPFC) is related to the impairment of cognitive control for threat stimuli in individuals with high avoidant attachment. Therefore, in the present study, the causal role of the L-DLPFC on hot WM presentation was investigated by the high-definition transcranial direct current stimulation (HD-tDCS) technique, and cognitive control for internal mental representations in WM was measured by the Internal Shift Task (IST). The results showed that the highly avoidant participants performed faster on the emotional IST than low avoidant participants in the sham condition. In the emotional IST, highly avoidant participants were slower after receiving anodal HD-tDCS than in the sham condition. Moreover, the switching cost of the emotional IST was significantly smaller in the highly avoidant group than low avoidant group under the sham HD-tDCS condition. Interestingly, in the emotional IST, the switching cost of highly avoidant individuals was significantly greater in the anodal stimulation group than the sham stimulation group. Conversely, the switching cost of low avoidant individuals was significantly smaller with anodal stimulation than for sham stimulation. The findings indicate that anodal HD-tDCS over the L-DLPFC can effectively enhance the ability of memory representation towards threat information in highly avoidant individuals. This study extends causal research by showing that the L-DLPFC is an important brain region for hot WM representations.

Enhanced response inhibition and reduced midfrontal theta activity in experienced Vipassana meditators

Response inhibition - the ability to suppress inappropriate thoughts and actions - is a fundamental aspect of cognitive control. Recent research suggests that mental training by meditation may improve cognitive control. Yet, it is still unclear if and how, at the neural level, long-term meditation practice may affect (emotional) response inhibition. The present study aimed to address this outstanding question, and used an emotional Go/Nogo task and electroencephalography (EEG) to examine possible differences in behavioral and electrophysiological indices of response inhibition between Vipassana meditators and an experience-matched active control group (athletes). Behaviorally, meditators made significantly less errors than controls on the emotional Go/Nogo task, independent of the emotional context, while being equally fast. This improvement in response inhibition at the behavioral level was accompanied by a decrease in midfrontal theta activity in Nogo vs. Go trials in the meditators compared to controls. Yet, no changes in ERP indices of response inhibition, as indexed by the amplitude of the N2 and P3 components, were observed. Finally, the meditators subjectively evaluated the emotional pictures lower in valence and arousal. Collectively, these results suggest that meditation may improve response inhibition and control over emotional reactivity.

The Dissociable Effects of Induced Positive and Negative Moods on Cognitive Flexibility

This study investigates how different valences of induced moods modulate cognitive flexibility in a task-switching paradigm. Forty-eight participants aged 19–25 years performed task switching after watching emotional film clips to induce an emotion (neutral, positive, or negative emotions). Two indicators of flexibility were evaluated: (1) the performance decrement reflected by increased reaction time (RT) or errors on the task-switch trial relative to a task-repetition trial, which is known as the “switching cost,” and (2) the performance improvement reflected by decreased RT or errors when switching from a task-switching context to a single-task context, which is known as the “fade-out” effect. These indicators reflect cognitive flexibility on short and long time scales, respectively. The results show that negative moods reduced switching costs, particularly in incongruent trials. In addition, negative moods were found to cause a prolonged fade-out effect compared with neutral and positive moods, indicating that participants required more trials to adjust to the single-task condition after experiencing the task-switching context. The result suggests that only negative moods and not positive moods modulated both the short and long time scales of cognitive flexibility but with dissociable effects. Possible explanations are discussed.

Anger Weakens Behavioral Inhibition Selectively in Contact Athletes

Studies have increasingly found that the aggression level of contact athletes is higher than that of non-athletes. Given that higher aggression levels are associated with worse behavioral inhibition and that athletes show better behavioral inhibition than non-athletes, it is unclear why contact athletes would exhibit higher aggression levels. Emotion, especially anger, is an important factor in the generation of aggressive behavior, and anger has been shown to affect behavioral inhibition. Thus, the present study examined the influence of anger on behavioral inhibition in contact athletes. An implicit emotional Go/No-go task was used that contained 50 anger-associated words and 50 neutral words as stimuli. Participants were asked to execute a key press depending on the explicit color of word and to ignore any (implicit) emotional information associated with the word. The results showed a significant interaction in performance accuracy on the No-go task between emotion (i.e., anger-associated words versus neutral words) and group (athlete versus non-athlete). The performance accuracy of the contact athletes on anger-associated stimuli was significantly lower than that for neutral stimuli. Evoked delta and theta oscillations were analyzed at the time windows 200–600 and 200–400 ms respectively in both groups. A time-frequency analysis indicated a significant interaction between group, emotion and task for both evoked delta and theta oscillations. Post hoc analyses showed that stronger evoked delta and theta oscillations were evoked during the presentation of anger-associated stimuli compared with neutral stimuli on the No-go task in athletes. By contrast, no other significant effect was found in the control group or between the control and athlete groups. These results indicate that time-frequency analysis can effectively distinguish conventional ERP components and that implicit anger significantly weakens behavioral inhibition in contact athletes but not in non-athletes.

Neurocognitive assessment of emotional context sensitivity

Sensitivity to emotional context is an emerging construct for characterizing adaptive or maladaptive emotion regulation, but few measurement approaches exist. The current study combined behavioral and neurocognitive measures to assess context sensitivity in relation to self-report measures of adaptive emotional flexibility and well-being. Sixty-six adults completed an emotional go/no-go task using happy, fearful, and neutral faces as go and no-go cues, while EEG was recorded to generate event-related potentials (ERPs) reflecting attentional selection and discrimination (N170) and cognitive control (N2). Context sensitivity was measured as the degree of emotional facilitation or disruption in the go/no-go task and magnitude of ERP response to emotion cues. Participants self-reported on emotional flexibility, anxiety, and depression. Overall participants evidenced emotional context sensitivity, such that when happy faces were go stimuli, accuracy improved (greater behavioral facilitation), whereas when fearful faces were no-go stimuli, errors increased (disrupted behavioral inhibition). These indices predicted emotional flexibility and well-being: Greater behavioral facilitation following happy cues was associated with lower depression and anxiety, whereas greater disruption in behavioral inhibition following fearful cues was associated with lower flexibility. ERP indices of context sensitivity revealed additional associations: Greater N2 to fear go cues was associated with less anxiety and depression, and greater N2 and N170 to happy and fear no-go cues, respectively, were associated with greater emotional flexibility and well-being. Results suggest that pleasant and unpleasant emotions selectively enhance and disrupt components of context sensitivity, and that behavioral and ERP indices of context sensitivity predict flexibility and well-being.

Dissociations of cognitive inhibition, response inhibition, and emotional interference: Voxelwise ALE meta-analyses of fMRI studies

Inhibitory control is the stopping of a mental process with or without intention, conceptualized as mental suppression of competing information because of limited cognitive capacity. Inhibitory control dysfunction is a core characteristic of many major psychiatric disorders. Inhibition is generally thought to involve the prefrontal cortex; however, a single inhibitory mechanism is insufficient for interpreting the heterogeneous nature of human cognition. It remains unclear whether different dimensions of inhibitory processes-specifically cognitive inhibition, response inhibition, and emotional interference-rely on dissociated neural systems. We conducted systematic meta-analyses of fMRI studies in the BrainMap database supplemented by PubMed using whole-brain activation likelihood estimation. A total of 66 study experiments including 1,447 participants and 987 foci revealed that while the left anterior insula was concordant in all inhibitory dimensions, cognitive inhibition reliably activated specific dorsal frontal inhibitory system, engaging dorsal anterior cingulate, dorsolateral prefrontal cortex, and parietal areas, whereas emotional interference reliably implicated a ventral inhibitory system, involving the ventral surface of the inferior frontal gyrus and the amygdala. Response inhibition showed concordant clusters in the fronto-striatal system, including the dorsal anterior cingulate region and extended supplementary motor areas, the dorsal and ventral lateral prefrontal cortex, basal ganglia, midbrain regions, and parietal regions. We provide an empirically derived dimensional model of inhibition characterizing neural systems underlying different aspects of inhibitory mechanisms. This study offers a fundamental framework to advance current understanding of inhibition and provides new insights for future clinical research into disorders with different types of inhibition-related dysfunctions.

An Integrative Neuroscience Framework for the Treatment of Chronic Pain: From Cellular Alterations to Behavior

Chronic pain can result from many pain syndromes including complex regional pain syndrome (CRPS), phantom limb pain and chronic low back pain, among others. On a molecular level, chronic pain syndromes arise from hypersensitization within the dorsal horn of the spinal cord, a process known as central sensitization. Central sensitization involves an upregulation of ionotropic and metabotropic glutamate receptors (mGluRs) similar to that of long-term potentiation (LTP). Regions of the brain in which LTP occurs, such as the amygdala and hippocampus, are implicated in fear- and memory-related brain circuity. Chronic pain dramatically influences patient quality of life. Individuals with chronic pain may develop pain-related anxiety and pain-related fear. The syndrome also alters functional connectivity in the default-mode network (DMN) and salience network. On a cellular/molecular level, central sensitization may be reversed through degradative glutamate receptor pathways. This, however, rarely happens. Instead, cortical brain regions may serve in a top-down regulatory capacity for the maintenance or alleviation of pain. Specifically, the medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC), which plays a critical role in fear-related brain circuits, the DMN, and salience network may be the driving forces in this process. On a cellular level, the mPFC may form new neural circuits through LTP that may cause extinction of pre-existing pain pathways found within fear-related brain circuits, the DMN, and salience network. In order to promote new LTP connections between the mPFC and other key brain structures, such as the amygdala and insula, we propose a holistic rehabilitation program including cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) and revolving around: (1) cognitive reappraisals; (2) mindfulness meditation; and (3) functional rehabilitation. Unlike current medical interventions focusing upon pain-relieving medications, we do not believe that chronic pain treatment should focus on reversing the effects of central sensitization. Instead, we propose here that it is critical to focus on non-invasive efforts to promote new neural circuits originating from the mPFC.

Using an emotional saccade task to characterize executive functioning and emotion processing in attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder and bipolar disorder

Despite distinct diagnostic criteria, attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) and bipolar disorder (BD) share cognitive and emotion processing deficits that complicate diagnoses. The goal of this study was to use an emotional saccade task to characterize executive functioning and emotion processing in adult ADHD and BD. Participants (21 control, 20 ADHD, 20 BD) performed an interleaved pro/antisaccade task (look toward vs. look away from a visual target, respectively) in which the sex of emotional face stimuli acted as the cue to perform either the pro- or antisaccade. Both patient groups made more direction (erroneous prosaccades on antisaccade trials) and anticipatory (saccades made before cue processing) errors than controls. Controls exhibited lower microsaccade rates preceding correct anti- vs. prosaccade initiation, but this task-related modulation was absent in both patient groups. Regarding emotion processing, the ADHD group performed worse than controls on neutral face trials, while the BD group performed worse than controls on trials presenting faces of all valence. These findings support the role of fronto-striatal circuitry in mediating response inhibition deficits in both ADHD and BD, and suggest that such deficits are exacerbated in BD during emotion processing, presumably via dysregulated limbic system circuitry involving the anterior cingulate and orbitofrontal cortex.

Neural functional correlates of the impact of socio-emotional stimuli on performances on a flanker task in children aged 9-11 years

Immature cognition is susceptible to interference from competing information, and particularly in affectively charged situations. Several studies have reported activation in the anterior cingulate cortex, prefrontal cortex and amygdala associated with emotional conflict processing in adults but literature is lacking regarding children. Moreover, studies in children and adolescents still disagree regarding the functional activation of amygdala related to facial stimuli. In the purpose of investigating both the effect of socio-emotional stimuli and its interaction with interference control, we designed a flanker task associated with an event-related fMRI paradigm in 30 healthy children ages 9-11. In addition to happy, angry and neutral faces, we presented scrambled stimuli to examine a potential effect of faces. Regarding both brain and behavior results, no effect of emotional valence was observed. However, both results evidenced an emotional effect of faces compared with scrambled stimuli. This was expressed by faster RTs associated with increased amygdala activity and activation of the ventral ACC, in congruent trials only. When scrambled were inversely compared to faces, increased activity was observed within the lateral prefrontal cortex. Regarding the amygdala, the results suggest that in late school age children, activity in the amygdala seemed to underlie the socio-emotional effect induced by faces but not the emotional conflict. Studying brain regions involved in emotion regulation is important to further understand neurodevelopmental disorders and psychopathologies, particularly in late childhood and adolescence.

Inhibition in the face of emotion: Characterization of the spatial-temporal dynamics that facilitate automatic emotion regulation

Emotion regulation mediates socio-cognitive functions and is essential for interactions with others. The capacity to automatically inhibit responses to emotional stimuli is an important aspect of emotion regulation; the underlying neural mechanisms of this ability have been rarely investigated. Forty adults completed a Go/No-go task during magnetoencephalographic (MEG) recordings, where they responded rapidly to either a blue or purple frame which contained angry or happy faces. Subjects responded to the target color in an inhibition (75% Go trials) and a vigilance condition (25% Go trials). As expected, inhibition processes showed early, sustained activation (200-450 ms) in the right inferior frontal gyrus (IFG). Emotion-related inhibition processes showed greater activity with angry faces bilaterally in the orbital-frontal gyri (OFG) starting at 225 ms and temporal poles from 250 ms, with right hemisphere dominance. The presence of happy faces elicited earlier activity in the right OFG. This study demonstrates that the timing of inhibition processes varies with the emotional context and that there is much greater activation in the presence of angry faces. It underscores the importance of the right IFG for inhibition processes, but the OFG in automatic emotion regulation.

The effects of DAT1 genotype on fMRI activation in an emotional go/no-go task

Dopaminergic brain circuits participate in emotional processing and impulsivity. The dopamine transporter (DAT) modulates dopamine reuptake. A variable number tandem repeat (VNTR) in the dopamine transporter gene (DAT1) affects DAT expression. The influence of DAT1 genotype on neural activation during emotional processing and impulse inhibition has not been examined. Forty-two healthy subjects were classified as 9DAT (n = 17) or 10DAT (n = 25) based on DAT1 genotype (9DAT = 9R/9R and 9R/10R; 10DAT = 10R/10R). Subjects underwent fMRI during non-emotional and emotional go/no-go tasks. Subjects were instructed to inhibit responses to letters, happy faces, or sad faces in separate blocks. Accuracy and reaction time did not differ between groups. Within group results showed activation in regions previously implicated in emotional processing and response inhibition. Between groups results showed increased activation in 9DAT individuals during inhibition. During letter inhibition, 9DAT individuals exhibited greater activation in right inferior parietal regions. During sad inhibition, 9DAT Individuals exhibited greater activation in frontal, posterior cingulate, precuneus, right cerebellar, left paracentral, and right occipital brain regions. The interaction between DAT genotype and response type in sad versus letter stimuli showed increased activation in 9DAT individuals during sad no-go responses in the anterior cingulate cortex, extending into frontal-orbital regions. 9DAT individuals have greater activation than 10DAT individuals during neutral and sad inhibition, showing that genotypic variation influencing basal dopamine levels can alter the neural basis of emotional processing and response inhibition. This may indicate that 9R carriers exert more effort to overcome increased basal dopamine activation when inhibiting responses in emotional contexts.

Neural Correlates of Response Inhibition and Conflict Control on Facial Expressions

Response inhibition and conflict control on affective information can be regarded as two important emotion regulation and cognitive control processes. The emotional Go/Nogo flanker paradigm was adopted and participant’s event-related potentials (ERPs) were analyzed to investigate how response inhibition and conflict control interplayed. The behavioral findings revealed that participants showed higher accuracy to identify happy faces in congruent condition relative to that in incongruent condition. The electrophysiological results manifested that response inhibition and conflict control interplayed during the detection/conflict monitoring stage, and Nogo-N2 was more negative in the incongruent trials than the congruent trials. With regard to the inhibitory control/conflict resolution stage, Nogo responses induced greater frontal P3 and parietal P3 responses than Go responses did. The difference waveforms of N2 and parietal P3 showed that response inhibition and conflict control had distinct processes, and the multiple responses requiring both conflict control and response inhibition processes induced stronger monitoring and resolution processes than conflict control. The current study manifested that response inhibition and conflict control on emotional information required separable neural mechanisms during emotion regulation processes.

Nested positive feedback loops in the maintenance of major depression: An integration and extension of previous models

Several theories of Major Depressive Disorder (MDD) have previously been proposed, focusing largely on either a psychological (i.e., cognitive/affective), biological, or neural/computational level of description. These theories appeal to somewhat distinct bodies of work that have each highlighted separate factors as being of considerable potential importance to the maintenance of MDD. Such factors include a range of cognitive/attentional information-processing biases, a range of structural and functional brain abnormalities, and also dysregulation within the autonomic, endocrine, and immune systems. However, to date there have been limited efforts to integrate these complimentary perspectives into a single multi-level framework. Here we review previous work in each of these MDD research domains and illustrate how they can be synthesized into a more comprehensive model of how a depressive episode is maintained. In particular, we emphasize how plausible (but insufficiently studied) interactions between the various MDD-related factors listed above can lead to a series of nested positive feedback loops, which are each capable of maintaining an individual in a depressive episode. We also describe how these different feedback loops could be active to different degrees in different individual cases, potentially accounting for heterogeneity in both depressive symptoms and treatment response. We conclude by discussing how this integrative model might extend understanding of current treatment mechanisms, and also potentially guide the search for markers to inform treatment selection in individual cases.

Neural correlates of preferred activities: development of an interest-specific go/nogo task

The activities we choose to spend our leisure time with are intrinsically motivating and vary across individuals. Yet it is unknown how impulse control or neural activity changes when processing a preferred stimulus related to a hobby or interest. Developing a task that assesses the response to preferred interests is of importance as it would be relevant to a range of psychiatric disorders that have hyper- or hypo-arousal to such cues. During functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging (fMRI), 39 healthy adults completed a novel task to test approach behavior and cognitive control to cues that were personalized to the participants' interests compared to stimuli the participants identified as being of non-interest and colored shapes. fMRI results showed that cues of one's interest elicited activation in the anterior insula compared to colored shapes. Interests did not change inhibition compared to non-interests and colored shapes and all stimuli equally engaged a frontostriatal circuit. Together the results suggest that adults were sensitive to their interests but were effective at regulating their impulses towards these cues, a skill that is critical for navigating the temptations and distractions in our daily environment.

Neural response to alcohol taste cues in youth: effects of the OPRM1 gene

Genetic variations in the mu-opioid receptor (OPRM1) gene have been related to high sensitivity to rewarding effects of alcohol. The current study focuses on the neural circuitry underlying this phenomenon using an alcohol versus water taste-cue reactivity paradigm in a young sample at relatively early stages of alcohol use, thus limiting the confound of variations in duration of alcohol use. Drinkers (17-21 years old) were selected on genotype carrying the AA-(n = 20) or the AG-(n = 16) variant of the A118G single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) of the OPRM1 gene (rs1799971), and underwent functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI). Magnitude of the neural activity and frontostriatal functional connectivity in response to alcohol versus water were investigated. The AG-group demonstrated reduced activation in prefrontal and parietal regions, including the inferior and middle frontal gyrus, superior and inferior parietal lobule, compared with the AA-group. No activation differences were observed in the mesolimbic pathway. Connectivity from the ventral-striatum to frontal regions for alcohol > water trials was higher in the AG than the AA group. For the dorsal-striatum seed region, the AG group showed increased connectivity to non-PFC regions. These results indicate that adolescents carrying the G-allele may be more vulnerable for the alcohol to hijack the reward system in the absence of frontal control to regulate craving. This implies that findings of hyperactivation in the mesolimbic structures of G-allele carriers in earlier studies might result from both genetic susceptibility and heavy drinking.

Do all inhibitions act alike? A study of go/no-go and stop-signal paradigms

Response inhibition is frequently measured by the Go/no-go and Stop-signal tasks. These two are often used indiscriminately under the assumption that both measure similar inhibitory control abilities. However, accumulating evidence show differences in both tasks' modulations, raising the question of whether they tap into equivalent cognitive mechanisms. In the current study, a comparison of the performance in both tasks took place under the influence of negative stimuli, following the assumption that ''controlled inhibition'', as measured by Stop-signal, but not ''automatic inhibition'', as measured by Go/no-go, will be affected. 54 young adults performed a task in which negative pictures, neutral pictures or no-pictures preceded go trials, no-go trials, and stop-trials. While the exposure to negative pictures impaired performance on go trials and improved the inhibitory capacity in Stop-signal task, the inhibitory performance in Go/no-go task was generally unaffected. The results support the conceptualization of different mechanisms operated by both tasks, thus emphasizing the necessity to thoroughly fathom both inhibitory processes and identify their corresponding cognitive measures. Implications regarding the usage of cognitive tasks for strengthening inhibitory capacity among individuals struggling with inhibitory impairments are discussed.

Interaction between behavioral inhibition and emotional processing in borderline personality disorder using a pictorial emotional go/no-go paradigm

Borderline personality disorder (BPD) is characterized by difficulties in emotional regulation and impulse control. In this study, we presented a novel picture-based emotional go/no-go task with distracting emotional faces in the background, which was administered to 16 patients with BPD and 16 age-matched healthy controls. The faces displayed different emotional content (angry, neutral, or happy). Results showed differences in sensitivity between patients and the control group, with patients exhibiting less sensitivity in the task, and also showed influences of emotional content represented in the distracting faces in both groups. Specifically, happy faces decreased sensitivity compared to angry faces. It seemed as though processing of a positive emotional stimulus led to a more relaxed state and thereby to decreased sensitivity, while a negative emotional stimulus induced more alertness and tension, leading to higher sensitivity. Thus, this paradigm is suitable to investigate the interplay between emotion processing and impulse control in patients with BPD.

Not all about sex: neural and biobehavioral functions of human dance

This paper provides an integrative review of neuroscientific and biobehavioral evidence about the effects of dance on the individual across cultural differences. Dance moves us, and many derive aesthetic pleasure from it. However, in addition-and beyond aesthetics-we propose that dance has noteworthy, deeper neurobiological effects. We first summarize evidence that illustrates the centrality of dance to human life indirectly from archaeology, comparative psychology, developmental psychology, and cross-cultural psychology. Second, we review empirical evidence for six neural and biobehavioral functions of dance: (1) attentional focus/flow, (2) basic emotional experiences, (3) imagery, (4) communication, (5) self-intimation, and (6) social cohesion. We discuss the reviewed evidence in relation to current debates in the field of empirical enquiry into the functions of human dance, questioning the positions that dance is (1) just for pleasure, (2) all about sex, (3) just for mood management and well-being, and (4) for experts only. Being a young field, evidence is still piecemeal and inconclusive. This review aims to take a step toward a systematization of an emerging avenue of research: a neuro- and biobehavioral science of dance.

An Emotional Call to Action: Integrating Affective Neuroscience in Models of Motor Control

Intimate relationships between emotion and action have long been acknowledged, yet contemporary theories and experimental research within affective and movement neuroscience have not been linked into a coherent framework bridging these two fields. Accumulating psychological and neuroimaging evidence has, however, brought new insights regarding how emotions affect the preparation, execution, and control of voluntary movement. Here we review main approaches and findings on such emotion–action interactions. To assimilate key emotion concepts of action tendencies and motive states with fundamental constructs of the motor system, we underscore the need for integrating an information-processing approach of motor control into affective neuroscience. This should provide a rich foundation to bridge the two fields, allowing further refinement and empirical testing of emotion theories and better understanding of affective influences in movement disorders.

The temporal and spatial brain dynamics of automatic emotion regulation in children

Mechanisms for automatic emotion regulation (AER) are essential during childhood as they offset the impact of unwanted or negative emotional responses without drawing on limited attentional resources. Despite the importance of AER in improving the efficiency and flexibility of self-regulation, few research studies have investigated the underlying neurophysiological mechanisms. To fill this gap, we used magnetoencephalography (MEG) to investigate AER-related brain processes in 25 children (∼10 years old) who performed a go/no–go task that included an incidental exposure to faces containing socio-emotional cues. Whole brain results revealed that the inhibition of angry faces (compared with happy faces) was associated with a stronger recruitment of several brain regions from 100 to 425 ms. These activations involved the right angular and occipital gyri from 100 to175 ms, the right orbito-frontal gyrus (OFG) from 250 to 325 ms (p^corr < 0.05), and finally, the left anterior temporal lobe (ATL) from 325 to 425 ms. Our results suggest a specific involvement of these regions in the automatic regulation of negative emotional stimuli in children. In the future, this knowledge may help understand developmental conditions where inhibition impairments are exacerbated by an emotional context.

Emotional Contexts Exert a Distracting Effect on Attention and Inhibitory Control in Female and Male Adolescents

Adolescents exhibit difficulties in behavioral regulation that become more evident when emotional contexts are involved, since these may hinder the development of socially-adaptive behaviors. The objectives of the present study were: to examine the influence of emotional contexts on adolescents’ ability to inhibit a prepotent response, evaluated by ERPs, and to determine whether sex differences in response inhibition are observed in adolescents in those contexts. Participants performed a prepotent response inhibition task (Go-NoGo) under 3 background context conditions: neutral, pleasant, and unpleasant. While no differences in accuracy were observed, the presence of emotional contexts did prolong reaction times compared to the neutral context. Also, the unpleasant context caused an enhancement of N2 amplitudes compared to the neutral and pleasant contexts. Also, N2 and P3 latencies were longer in emotional contexts than in the neutral condition during both correct responses and correct inhibitions. No sex differences were found in amplitude, but females showed longer N2 and P3 latencies than males. These results confirm the idea that, in adolescents, unpleasant pictures receive preferential attention over neutral images and so generate greater difficulty in response inhibition. Finally, results demonstrate that sex differences in inhibition control in adolescence were observed only in relation to time-processing.

Neural correlates of emotional inhibitory control in autism spectrum disorders

Atypical inhibitory function is often present in individuals with autism spectrum disorder (ASD), who may have difficulty suppressing context-inappropriate behaviors. We investigated the neural correlates of inhibition in ASD in response to both emotional and non-emotional stimuli using an fMRI Go/NoGo inhibition task with human faces and letters. We also related neural activation to behavioral dysfunction in ASD. Our sample consisted of 19 individuals with ASD (mean age=25.84) and 22 typically developing (TD) control participants (mean age=29.03). As expected, no group differences in task performance (inhibition accuracy and response time) were found. However, adults with ASD exhibited greater angular gyrus activation in face response inhibition blocks, as well as greater fusiform gyrus activation than controls, in a condition comparing face inhibition to letter inhibition. In contrast, control participants yielded significantly greater anterior cingulate cortex (ACC) activation in letter inhibition blocks. A positive relationship between communication and language impairment and angular gyrus activation during face inhibition was also found. Group activation differences during inhibition tasks in the context of comparable task performance and the relationship between activation and dysfunction highlight brain regions that may be related to ASD-specific dysfunction.

Decreased response inhibition to sad faces during explicit and implicit tasks in females with depression: Evidence from an event-related potential study

The present study aimed to investigate neural substrates of response inhibition to sad faces across explicit and implicit tasks in depressed female patients. Event-related potentials were obtained while participants performed modified explicit and implicit emotional go/no-go tasks. Compared to controls, depressed patients showed decreased discrimination accuracy and amplitudes of original and nogo-go difference waves at the P3 interval in response inhibition to sad faces during explicit and implicit tasks. P3 difference wave were positively correlated with discrimination accuracy and were independent of clinical assessment. The activation of right dorsal prefrontal cortex was larger for the implicit than for the explicit task in sad condition in health controls, but was similar for the two tasks in depressed patients. The present study indicated that selectively impairment in response inhibition to sad faces in depressed female patients occurred at the behavior inhibition stage across implicit and explicit tasks and may be a trait-like marker of depression. Longitudinal studies are required to determine whether decreased response inhibition to sad faces increases the risk for future depressive episodes so that appropriate treatment can be administered to patients.