Brain Activity and Network Interactions Linked to Valence-Related Differences in the Impact of Emotional Distraction

Investigation of combined treatment of acupuncture and neurofeedback for improving cognitive function in mild neurocognitive disorder: A randomized, assessor-blind, pilot study

BACKGROUND

Mild neurocognitive disorder (MND) is an intermediate state that can progress to dementia, and the cognitive reserve of MND is an important task in preventing dementia. Acupuncture and neurofeedback (NF) training have been used to improve cognitive function and treat MND or dementia, but their effectiveness remains controversial. In this trial, we will evaluate the efficacy and safety of combined NF-acupuncture treatment in comparison with single acupuncture treatment.

METHODS AND DESIGN

This study is a randomized, assessor-blind, pilot trial. It is designed in accordance with the Standards for Reporting Interventions in Controlled Trials of Acupuncture. A total of 44 MND participants who meet the inclusion and exclusion criteria will be enrolled, and each will be randomly assigned to 1 of 2 groups of 22 subjects. Each subject will visit 24 times over 12 weeks and receive either acupuncture or NF-acupuncture combined treatment. At visit 25 (week 13), a follow-up evaluation will be performed, and then the investigator will analyze the results. The primary outcome is defined by the Korean version of the Montreal Cognitive Assessment score from screening to visit 25. The secondary outcome includes the following: change in Alzheimer Disease Assessment Scale-Cognitive, the Korean version of the Beck Depression Inventory, Body Awareness Questionnaire, delayed matching to sample task scores, and functional near-infrared spectroscopy values, from visit 1 to visit 25; heart rate variability values from visit 1 to visit 5, visit 9, visit 13, visit 21, visit 25; breath per minute values from visit 1 to visit 1 to 25.

DISCUSSION

We will evaluate the effectiveness and safety of combined NF-acupuncture therapy, and expect that it will serve as the basis for the use of NF together with acupuncture in the clinical setting.

TRIAL REGISTRATION NUMBER

KCT0004972 (registered in Clinical Research Information Service of the Republic of Korea, https://cris.nih.go.kr/cris/search/detailSearch.do/16239).

Proof-of-concept evidence for trimodal simultaneous investigation of human brain function

The link between spatial (where) and temporal (when) aspects of the neural correlates of most psychological phenomena is not clear. Elucidation of this relation, which is crucial to fully understand human brain function, requires integration across multiple brain imaging modalities and cognitive tasks that reliably modulate the engagement of the brain systems of interest. By overcoming the methodological challenges posed by simultaneous recordings, the present report provides proof‐of‐concept evidence for a novel approach using three complementary imaging modalities: functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), event‐related potentials (ERPs), and event‐related optical signals (EROS). Using the emotional oddball task, a paradigm that taps into both cognitive and affective aspects of processing, we show the feasibility of capturing converging and complementary measures of brain function that are not currently attainable using traditional unimodal or other multimodal approaches. This opens up unprecedented possibilities to clarify spatiotemporal integration of brain function.

Inhibition of emotions in healthy aging: age-related differences in brain network connectivity

INTRODUCTION

Successful inhibition of distracting emotions is important for preserving well-being and daily functioning. There is conflicting evidence regarding the impact of healthy aging on emotional inhibition, and possible age-related alterations in the neuronal underpinnings of emotional interference processing are unexplored.

METHODS

Thirty younger (mean age 26 years; 15 women) and 30 older (mean age 71 years; 13 women) healthy adults performed a face-word emotional Stroop task while undergoing functional magnetic resonance imaging of the brain. A resting-state scan was acquired for calculating the amplitude of low-frequency fluctuations as an estimate of vascular reactivity. Comparisons of brain activation during the task were assessed in a whole-brain, voxel-wise analysis, contrasting congruent, and incongruent conditions. The canonical regions of the frontoparietal, salience, dorsal attention, and default mode networks were used as seed regions for assessing functional connectivity within and between large-scale brain networks. Task performance was evaluated using response accuracy and response time.

RESULTS

The older adults had longer response times and lower task accuracy than the younger adults, but the emotional interference effect was not significantly different between the groups. Whole-brain analysis revealed no significant age-related differences in brain activation patterns. Rescaling the data for estimated variability in vascular reactivity did not affect the results. In older adults, there was relatively stronger functional connectivity with the default mode network, the sensorimotor network, and the dorsal attention network for the frontoparietal and salience network seeds during the task. Conversely, younger adults had relatively stronger connections within and between the frontoparietal and salience networks.

CONCLUSION

In this first fMRI study of emotional Stroop interference in older and younger adults, we found that the emotional interference effect was unchanged in healthy aging and replicated the finding from non-emotional task studies that older adults have greater between-network and less within-network connectivity compared to younger adults.

Different Influences of Negative and Neutral Emotional Interference on Working Memory in Trait Anxiety

To examine the interaction of working memory (WM) type with emotional interference in trait anxiety, event-related potentials were measured in a combined WM and emotional task. Participants completed a delayed matching-to-sample task of WM, and emotional pictures were presented during the maintenance interval. The results indicated that negative affect interfered with spatial WM; task-related changes in amplitude were observed in the late positive potential (LPP) and slow waves in both the high and low anxiety groups. We also found an interaction among WM type, emotion, and trait anxiety such that participants with high levels of trait anxiety showed an opposite neural response to verbal and spatial WM tasks compared with individuals with low trait anxiety during the sustained brain activity involved in processing negative or neutral pictures in the delay phase. Our results increase our understanding of the influence of emotions on recognition and the vulnerability of those with trait anxiety to emotional stimuli.

The effects of language and emotionality of stimuli on vocabulary learning

Learning new content and vocabulary in a foreign language can be particularly difficult. Yet, there are educational programs that require people to study in a language they are not native speakers of. For this reason, it is important to understand how these learning processes work and possibly differ from native language learning, as well as to develop strategies to ease this process. The current study takes advantage of emotionality-operationally defined as positive valence and high arousal-to improve memory. In two experiments, the present paper addresses whether participants have more difficulty learning the names of objects they have never seen before in their foreign language and whether embedding them in a positive semantic context can help make learning easier. With this in mind, we had participants (with a minimum of a B2 level of English) in two experiments (43 participants in Experiment 1 and 54 in Experiment 2) read descriptions of made-up objects-either positive or neutral and either in their native or a foreign language. The effects of language varied with the difficulty of the task and measure used. In both cases, learning the words in a positive context improved learning. Importantly, the effect of emotionality was not modulated by language, suggesting that the effects of emotionality are independent of language and could potentially be a useful tool for improving foreign language vocabulary learning.

Dorsolateral prefrontal cortex response to negative tweets relates to executive functioning

Cognitive performance can become impaired when a stimulus evokes an emotional response. Social media often elicits emotional reactions, but, despite social media's ubiquity, cognitive and neural consequences of exposure to negative online content are relatively unknown. Fifty-seven human adults (18-29 years; 38 female) who identified with at least one historically-marginalized group performed a novel 'Tweet Task'. While undergoing functional magnetic resonance imaging, participants completed a spatial reasoning task before and after reading a set of actual tweets. Participants were randomly assigned to read negative, discriminatory tweets from President Trump (Negative Condition) or neutral tweets (Neutral Condition). Participants in the Negative Condition reported worsening affect and demonstrated performance interference post-tweet compared to those in the Neutral Condition. Affect post-tweet was associated with parametric reductions in left dorsolateral prefrontal cortex, which predicted variance in performance beyond elicited negative affect. Performance effects were demonstrated on an unrelated spatial reasoning task suggesting that engaging with negative, emotionally-arousing content on social media can have deleterious effects on executive functioning in non-social domains.

Depressogenic self-schemas are associated with smaller regional grey matter volume in never-depressed preadolescents

Self-referential processing (i.e., self-schemas that guide processing of self-descriptive information) emerges early in youth, with deeper encoding of negative self-descriptors and/or shallower encoding of positive self-descriptors causally linked to depression. However, the relationship between depressogenic self-schemas and brain structure is unclear. We investigated associations between self-schemas and regional grey matter volume (GMV) in 84 never-depressed preadolescents oversampled for depression risk based on maternal depression history. Self-schemas were assessed using a Self-Referent Encoding Task (SRET) and regional GMV was indexed via voxel-based morphometry analysis of structural magnetic resonance imaging data. Youths' positive self-schemas were associated with greater regional GMV within the ventrolateral prefrontal cortex (vlPFC) and posterior cingulate cortex (PCC), while negative self-schemas were associated with smaller regional GMV within vlPFC and PCC, areas important to emotion regulation and self-referential processing. These associations remained significant after controlling for youths' concurrent depressive symptoms. Exploratory mediation analysis suggested that adolescents' depressogenic self-schemas may mediate associations between GMV and depressive symptoms. Our findings suggest that the observed GMV variations within vlPFC and PCC may serve as neurobiological markers of depressogenic self-schemas during preadolescence.

The Impact of Focused Attention on Emotional Experience: A Functional MRI Investigation

Emotional well-being depends on the ability to adaptively cope with various emotional challenges. Most studies have investigated the neural mechanisms of emotion regulation strategies deployed relatively later in the timing of processing that leads to full emotional experiences. However, less is known about strategies that are engaged in earlier stages of emotion processing, such as those involving attentional deployment. We investigated the neural mechanisms associated with self-guided Focused Attention (FA) in mitigating subjective negative emotional experiences. Functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) data were recorded while participants viewed a series of composite negative and neutral images with distinguishable foreground (FG) and background (BG) areas. Participants were instructed to focus either on the FG or BG components of the images, and then rated their emotional experiences. Behavioral results showed that FA was successful in decreasing emotional ratings for negative images viewed in BG Focus condition. At the neural level, the BG Focus was associated with increased activity in regions typically implicated in top-down executive control (dorsolateral prefrontal cortex and lateral parietal cortex) and decreased activity in regions linked to affective processing (amygdala and ventrolateral prefrontal cortex). Dissociable brain activity linked to FA also was identified in visual cortices, including between the parahippocampal and fusiform gyri, showing increased versus decreased activity, respectively, during the BG Focus. These findings complement the evidence from prior FA studies with recollected emotional memories as internal stimuli and further demonstrate the effectiveness of self-guided FA in mitigating negative emotional experiences associated with processing of external unpleasant stimuli.

Emotional Interference in Early Adolescence: Positive Reinforcement Modulates the Behavioral and Neural Effects of Negative Emotional Distracters

Limited research has examined functioning within fronto-limbic systems subserving the resistance to emotional interference in adolescence despite evidence indicating that alterations in these systems are implicated in the developmental trajectories of affective disorders. This study examined the functioning of fronto-limbic systems subserving emotional interference in early adolescence and whether positive reinforcement could modulate these systems to promote resistance to emotional distraction. Fifty healthy early adolescents (10-13 years old) completed an emotional delayed working memory (WM) paradigm in which no distractors (fixation crosshair) and emotional distracters (neutral and negative images) were presented with and without positive reinforcement for correct responses. WM accuracy decreased with negative distracters relative to neutral distracters and no distracters, and activation increased in amygdala and prefrontal cortical (PFC) regions (ventrolateral, dorsomedial, ventromedial, and subgenual anterior cingulate) with negative distracters compared with those with no distracters. Reinforcement improved performance and reduced activation in the amygdala, dorsomedial PFC, and ventrolateral PFC. Decreases in amygdala activation to negative distracters due to reinforcement mediated observed decreases in reaction times. These findings demonstrate that healthy adolescents recruit similar fronto-limbic systems subserving emotional interference as adults and that positive reinforcement can modulate fronto-limbic systems to promote resistance to emotional distraction.

Dynamic adjustments in working memory in the face of affective interference

Cognitive control, which allows for the selection and monitoring of goal-relevant behavior, is dynamically upregulated on the basis of moment-to-moment cognitive demands. One route by which these demands are registered by cognitive control systems is via the detection of response conflict. Yet working memory (WM) demands may similarly signal dynamic adjustments in cognitive control. In a delayed-recognition WM task, Jha and Kiyonaga (Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, & Cognition, 36(4), 1036-1042, 2010) demonstrated dynamic adjustments in cognitive control via manipulations of mnemonic load and delay-spanning cognitive interference. In the present study, we aimed to extend prior work by investigating whether affective interference may similarly upregulate cognitive control. In Experiment 1, participants (N = 89) completed a delayed-recognition WM task in which mnemonic load (memory load of one vs. two items) and delay-spanning affective interference (neutral vs. negative distractors) were manipulated in a factorial design. Consistent with Jha and Kiyonaga, the present results revealed that mnemonic load led to dynamic adjustments in cognitive control, as reflected by greater performance on trials preceded by high than by low load. In addition, we observed that affective interference could trigger dynamic adjustments in cognitive control, as evinced by higher performance on trials preceded by negative than by neutral distractors. These findings were subsequently confirmed in Experiment 2, which was a pre-registered replication study (N = 100). Thus, these results suggest that in addition to dynamic adjustments as a function of mnemonic load, affective interference, similar to cognitive interference (Jha & Kiyonaga Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, & Cognition, 36(4), 1036-1042, 2010), may trigger dynamic adjustments in cognitive control during a WM task.

Attention to a threat-related feature does not interfere with concurrent attentive feature selection

Visual features associated with a task and those that predict noxious events both prompt selectively heightened visuocortical responses. Conflicting views exist regarding how the competition between a task-related and a threat-related feature is resolved when they co-occur in time and space. Utilizing aversive classical Pavlovian conditioning, we investigated the visuocortical representation of two simultaneously presented, fully overlapping visual stimuli. Isoluminant red and green random dot kinematogram (RDK) stimuli were flickered at distinct tagging frequencies (8.57 Hz, 12 Hz) to elicit distinguishable steady-state visual evoked potentials (ssVEPs). Occasional coherent motion events prompted a motor response (task) or predicted a noxious noise (threat). These events occurred either in the green (task cue), the red (threat cue), or in both RDKs simultaneously. In the initial habituation phase, participants responded to coherent motion of the green RDK with a key press, but no loud noise was presented at any time. Here, selective amplification was seen for the task-relevant (green) RDK, and interference was observed when both RDKs simultaneously showed coherent motion. Upon pairing the threat cue with the noxious noise in the subsequent acquisition phase, the threat cue-evoked ssVEP (red RDK) was also amplified, but this amplification did not interact with amplification of the task cue or alter the behavioral or visuocortical interference effect observed during simultaneous coherent motion. Although competing feature conjunctions resulted in interference in the visual cortex, the acquisition of a bias toward an individual threat-related feature did not result in additional cost effects.

Neurocircuitry of acupuncture effect on cognitive improvement in patients with mild cognitive impairment using magnetic resonance imaging: a study protocol for a randomized controlled trial

Background

Mild cognitive impairment (MCI) is defined as a decline in cognitive state with preservation of activities of daily living. Medications such as donepezil and rivastigmine have been commonly prescribed for MCI, but their use is controversial. Acupuncture has been widely used in Korea and has been shown to improve cognitive function. The aim of this study is to evaluate the efficacy of acupuncture for MCI and investigate the effect of acupuncture on structural and functional brain changes in patients with MCI.

Methods

This study is a randomized, assessor-blinded, sham-controlled trial. Fifty participants with MCI will be randomly assigned to the acupuncture group (n = 25) or sham acupuncture group (n = 25). The acupuncture group will receive acupuncture treatment at nine acupuncture points (GV20, EX-HN1, bilateral LI4, and ST36) twice a week for 12 weeks. The sham acupuncture group will receive sham acupuncture treatment at the same points with non-penetrating sham needles. Both groups will be restricted from all other treatments for the improvement of cognitive function. The primary outcome measure is the Digit Span Test (DST). The secondary outcome measures are the Digit Symbol Substitution Test (DSST), Korean version of Montreal Cognitive Assessment (MoCA-K), Seoul Neuropsychological Screening Battery-II (SNSB-II), Beck Depression Inventory-II (BDI-II), State-Trait Anxiety Inventory (STAI), working memory (WM) task performance score, and structural/functional brain changes. Outcomes will be assessed at screening, baseline, 4 and 8 weeks, and after the end of treatment. We will also observe adverse events. In the statistical analysis, a full analysis set and per-protocol analysis will be performed.

Discussion

This randomized clinical trial aims to examine the efficacy of acupuncture treatment for MCI. Neuropsychological tests, psychological inventories for measuring depression and anxiety, and magnetic resonance imaging will be performed to investigate the underlying neurological mechanisms and the association between cognition, emotion, and brain networks following acupuncture treatment. The results of the trial will provide evidence supporting the efficacy of acupuncture and also add to the neurobiological understanding of acupuncture treatment for MCI.

Trial registration

Clinical Research Information Service, KCT0002896. Registered on 25 May 2018.

Electronic supplementary material

The online version of this article (10.1186/s13063-019-3446-9) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.

Enhanced insular/prefrontal connectivity when resisting from emotional distraction during visual search

Previous literature demonstrated that the processing of emotional stimuli can interfere with goal-directed behavior. This has been shown primarily in the context of working memory tasks, but “emotional distraction” may affect also other processes, such as the orienting of visuo-spatial attention. During fMRI, we presented human subjects with emotional stimuli embedded within complex everyday life visual scenes. Emotional stimuli could be either the current target to be searched for or task-irrelevant distractors. Behavioral and eye-movement data revealed faster detection of emotional than neutral targets. Emotional distractors were found to be fixated later and for a shorter duration than emotional targets, suggesting efficient top-down control in avoiding emotional distraction. The fMRI data demonstrated that negative (but not positive) stimuli were mandatorily processed by limbic/para-limbic regions (namely, the right amygdala and the left insula), irrespective of current task relevance: that is, these regions activated for both emotional targets and distractors. However, analyses of inter-regional connectivity revealed a functional coupling between the left insula and the right prefrontal cortex that increased specifically during search in the presence of emotional distractors. This indicates that increased functional coupling between affective limbic/para-limbic regions and control regions in the frontal cortex can attenuate emotional distraction, permitting the allocation of spatial attentional resources toward task-relevant neutral targets in the presence of distracting emotional signals.

Using ERPs to explore the impact of affective distraction on working memory stages in schizophrenia

Research on individuals with schizophrenia (SCZ) shows a variety of emotional and cognitive deficits. We examined the hypothesis that ineffective emotional interference control may impact working memory (WM) performance by disrupting information encoding, maintenance, or retrieval in SCZ. Twenty-eight SCZ and 28 matched healthy controls (HC) performed the visual and verbal delayed-matching-to-sample task (DMST) with trials preceded by negative and nonemotional visual distractors. Event-Related Potentials associated with affective stimuli processing (Late Positive Potential-LPP) and WM-encoding (target-P3), maintenance (Negative Slow Wave-NSW), and retrieval (probe-P3) were analyzed. Patients showed overall worse DMST accuracy than HC. Emotional distraction negatively impacted accuracy during the verbal DMST in both groups combined. Both groups also displayed similar LPP modulation during the presentation of emotional distractors. HC showed enhanced NSW after presentation of a negative distraction, whereas this did not occur in SCZ. Comparable effects of emotional distraction were found for WM-encoding and retrieval in both groups. While emotional and neutral stimuli differentially impacted WM-maintenance on the neural level in HC, we did not observe this effect in SCZ, even though both groups showed similar behavioral and neurophysiological reactions to affective stimuli. Deficits in inhibitory mechanisms in SCZ may be responsible for this effect and may have particular relevance for WM-maintenance difficulties.

Affective Working Memory: An Integrative Psychological Construct

When people ruminate about an unfortunate encounter with a loved one, savor a long-sought accomplishment, or hold in mind feelings from a marvelous or regretfully tragic moment, what mental processes orchestrate these psychological phenomena? Such experiences typify how affect interacts with working memory, which we posit can occur in three primary ways: emotional experiences can modulate working memory, working memory can modulate emotional experiences, and feelings can be the mental representations maintained by working memory. We propose that this last mode constitutes distinct neuropsychological processes that support the integration of particular cognitive and affective processes: affective working memory. Accumulating behavioral and neural evidence suggests that affective working memory processes maintain feelings and are partially separable from their cognitive working memory counterparts. Affective working memory may be important for elucidating the contribution of affect to decision making, preserved emotional processes in later life, and mechanisms of psychological dysfunction in clinical disorders. We review basic behavioral, neuroscience, and clinical research that provides evidence for affective working memory; consider its theoretical implications; and evaluate its functional role within the psychological architecture. In sum, the perspective we advocate is that affective working memory is a fundamental mechanism of mind.

Quantifying Intermodal Distraction by Emotion During Math Performance: An Electrophysiological Approach

Emotionally engaging stimuli are powerful competitors for limited attention capacity. In the cognitive neuroscience laboratory, the presence of task-irrelevant emotionally arousing visual distractors prompts decreased performance and attenuated brain responses measured in concurrent visual tasks. The extent to which distraction effects occur across different sensory modalities is not yet established, however. Here, we examined the extent and time course of competition between a naturalistic distractor sound and a visual task stimulus, using dense-array electroencephalography (EEG) recordings from 20 college students. Steady-state visual evoked potentials (ssVEPs) were quantified from EEG, elicited by periodically flickering vignettes displaying basic arithmetic problems - the participants' primary task. Concurrently, low-arousing and high-arousing sounds were presented, as well as auditory pink noise, used as a control. Capitalizing on the temporal dynamics of the ssVEP signal allowed us to study intermodal interference of the sounds with the processing of the visual math problems. We observed that high-arousing sounds were associated with diminished visuocortical responses and poor performance, compared to low-arousing sounds and pink noise, suggesting that emotional distraction acts across modalities. We discuss the role of sensory cortices in emotional distraction along with implications for translational research in educational neuroscience.

Age differences in the neural response to emotional distraction during working memory encoding

Age-related declines in attention and working memory (WM) are well documented and may be worsened by the occurrence of distracting information. Emotionally valenced stimuli may have particularly strong distracting effects on cognition. We investigated age-related differences in emotional distraction using task-fMRI. WM performance in older adults was lower for emotional compared with neutral distractors, suggesting a disproportional impairment elicited by emotional task-irrelevant information. Critically, older adults were particularly distracted by task-irrelevant positive information, whereas the opposite pattern was found for younger adults. Age groups differed markedly in the brain response to emotional distractors; younger adults activated posterior cortical regions and the striatum, and older adults activated frontal regions. Also, an age by valence interaction was found for IFG and ACC, suggesting differential modulation of attention to task-relevant emotional information. These results provide new insights into age-related changes in emotional processing and the ability to resolve interference from emotional distraction.

Impact of Indoor Physical Environment on Learning Efficiency in Different Types of Tasks: A 3 × 4 × 3 Full Factorial Design Analysis

Indoor physical environments appear to influence learning efficiency nowadays. For improvement in learning efficiency, environmental scenarios need to be designed when occupants engage in different learning tasks. However, how learning efficiency is affected by indoor physical environment based on task types are still not well understood. The present study aims to explore the impacts of three physical environmental factors (i.e., temperature, noise, and illuminance) on learning efficiency according to different types of tasks, including perception, memory, problem-solving, and attention-oriented tasks. A 3 × 4 × 3 full factorial design experiment was employed in a university classroom with 10 subjects recruited. Environmental scenarios were generated based on different levels of temperature (17 °C, 22 °C, and 27 °C), noise (40 dB(A), 50 dB(A), 60 dB(A), and 70 dB(A)) and illuminance (60 lx, 300 lx, and 2200 lx). Accuracy rate (AC), reaction time (RT), and the final performance indicator (PI) were used to quantify learning efficiency. The results showed ambient temperature, noise, and illuminance exerted significant main effect on learning efficiency based on four task types. Significant concurrent effects of the three factors on final learning efficiency was found in all tasks except problem-solving-oriented task. The optimal environmental scenarios for top learning efficiency were further identified under different environmental interactions. The highest learning efficiency came in thermoneutral, relatively quiet, and bright conditions in perception-oriented task. Subjects performed best under warm, relatively quiet, and moderately light exposure when recalling images in the memory-oriented task. Learning efficiency peaked to maxima in thermoneutral, fairly quiet, and moderately light environment in problem-solving process while in cool, fairly quiet and bright environment with regard to attention-oriented task. The study provides guidance for building users to conduct effective environmental intervention with simultaneous controls of ambient temperature, noise, and illuminance. It contributes to creating the most suitable indoor physical environment for improving occupants learning efficiency according to different task types. The findings could further supplement the present indoor environment-related standards or norms with providing empirical reference on environmental interactions.

vmPFC activation during a stressor predicts positive emotions during stress recovery

Despite accruing evidence showing that positive emotions facilitate stress recovery, the neural basis for this effect remains unclear. To identify the underlying mechanism, we compared stress recovery for people reflecting on a stressor while in a positive emotional context with that for people in a neutral context. While blood-oxygen-level dependent data were being collected, participants (N = 43) performed a stressful anagram task, which was followed by a recovery period during which they reflected on the stressor while watching a positive or neutral video. Participants also reported positive and negative emotions throughout the task as well as retrospective thoughts about the task. Although there was no effect of experimental context on emotional recovery, we found that ventromedial prefrontal cortex (vmPFC) activation during the stressor predicted more positive emotions during recovery, which in turn predicted less negative emotions during recovery. In addition, the relationship between vmPFC activation and positive emotions during recovery was mediated by decentering-the meta-cognitive detachment of oneself from one's feelings. In sum, successful recovery from a stressor seems to be due to activation of positive emotion-related regions during the stressor itself as well as to their downstream effects on certain cognitive forms of emotion regulation.

Positive reinforcement modulates fronto-limbic systems subserving emotional interference in adolescents

Fronto-limbic systems play an important role in supporting resistance to emotional distraction to promote goal-directed behavior. Despite evidence that alterations in the functioning of these systems are implicated in developmental trajectories of psychopathology, most studies have been conducted in adults. This study examined the functioning of fronto-limbic systems subserving emotional interference in adolescents and whether differential reinforcement of correct responding can modulate these neural systems in ways that could promote resistance to emotional distraction. Fourteen healthy adolescents (ages 9-15) completed an emotional delayed working memory task during fMRI with emotional distracters (none, neutral, negative) while positive reinforcement (i.e., monetary reward) was provided for correct responses under some conditions. Adolescents showed slightly reduced behavioral performance and greater activation in amygdala and prefrontal cortical regions (ventrolateral, ventromedial, dorsolateral) on correct trials with negative distracters compared to those with no or neutral distracters. Positive reinforcement yielded an overall improvement in accuracy and reaction times and counteracted the effects of negative distracters as evidenced by significant reductions in activation in key fronto-limbic regions. The present findings extend results on emotional interference from adults to adolescents and suggest that positive reinforcement could be used to potentially promote insulation from emotional distraction. A challenge for the future will be to build upon these findings for constructing reinforcement-based attention training programs that could be used to reduce emotional attention biases in anxious youth.

The correlation between mood states and functional connectivity within the default mode network can differentiate Internet gaming disorder from healthy controls

The default-mode network (DMN) has been suggested to support a baseline state of brain activity. However, whether connectivity within the DMN is associated with mood states remains incompletely understood. The current study examined the correlation between mood state and the functional connectivity (FC) among DMN regions, and examined if the FC can differentiate Internet gaming disorder (IGD) from healthy controls (HC). Resting state data were collected within 108 college students (IGD,41; HC,67). Negative correlations were observed between measures of: (1) Depression and FCs among ventral DMN regions; (2) Anger and FCs among dorsal DMN regions; and, (3) Anger and Depression and FCs of both the ventral and dorsal DMN. The results suggest that negative mood states of Depression and Anger might reflect poorer, or might impair, FCs among DMN regions. In addition, the FC among DMNs could be useful indexes in differencing IGD from HC. Future studies should examine the extent to which the findings may extend to clinical populations and whether increased connectivity of DMN regions may represent a mechanism for reducing negative mood states.

Default mode network deactivation during emotion processing predicts early antidepressant response

Several previous functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) studies have demonstrated the predictive value of brain activity during emotion processing for antidepressant response, with a focus on clinical outcome after 6-8 weeks. However, longitudinal studies emphasize the paramount importance of early symptom improvement for the course of disease in major depressive disorder (MDD). We therefore aimed to assess whether neural activity during the emotion discrimination task (EDT) predicts early antidepressant effects, and how these predictive measures relate to more sustained response. Twenty-three MDD patients were investigated once with ultrahigh-field 7T fMRI and the EDT. Following fMRI, patients received Escitalopram in a flexible dose schema and were assessed with the Hamilton Depression Rating Scale (HAMD) before, and after 2 and 4 weeks of treatment. Deactivation of the precuneus and posterior cingulate cortex (PCC) during the EDT predicted change in HAMD scores after 2 weeks of treatment. Baseline EDT activity was not predictive of HAMD change after 4 weeks of treatment. The precuneus and PCC are integral components of the default mode network (DMN). We show that patients who exhibit stronger DMN suppression during emotion processing are more likely to show antidepressant response after 2 weeks. This is, to our knowledge, the first study to show that DMN activity predicts early antidepressant effects. However, DMN deactivation did not predict response at 4 weeks, suggesting that our finding is representative of early, likely treatment-related, yet unspecific symptom improvement. Regardless, early effects may be harnessed for optimization of treatment regimens and patient care.

Responding to emotional scenes: effects of response outcome and picture repetition on reaction times and the late positive potential

Processing the motivational relevance of a visual scene and reacting accordingly is crucial for survival. Previous work suggests the emotional content of naturalistic scenes affects response speed, such that unpleasant content slows responses whereas pleasant content accelerates responses. It is unclear whether these effects reflect motor-cognitive processes, such as attentional orienting, or vary with the function/outcome of the motor response itself. Four experiments manipulated participants' ability to terminate the picture (offset control) and, thereby, the response's function and motivational value. Attentive orienting was manipulated via picture repetition, which diminishes orienting. A total of N = 81 participants completed versions of a go/no-go task, discriminating between distorted versus intact pictures drawn from six content categories varying in positive, negative, or neutral valence. While all participants responded faster with repetition, only participants without offset control exhibited slower responses to unpleasant and accelerated responses to pleasant content. Emotional engagement, measured by the late positive potential, was not modulated by attentional orienting (repetition), suggesting that the interaction between repetition and offset control is not due to altered emotional engagement. Together, results suggest that response time changes as a function of emotional content and sensitivity to attention orienting depends on the motivational function of the motor response.

Large-scale functional brain connectivity during emotional engagement as revealed by beta-series correlation analysis

It has been hypothesized that the medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC) is a hub in the network that mediates appetitive responses whereas the amygdala is thought to mediate both aversive and appetitive processing. Both structures may facilitate adaptive responses to emotional challenge by linking perception, attention, memory, and motor circuits. We provide an initial exploration of these hypotheses by recording simultaneous EEG-fMRI in eleven participants viewing affective pictures. MPFC- and amygdala-seeded functional connectivity maps were generated by applying the beta-series correlation method. The mPFC-seeded correlation map encompassed visual regions, sensorimotor areas, prefrontal cortex, and medial temporal lobe structures, exclusively for pleasant content. For the amygdala-seeded correlation map, a similar set of distributed brain areas appeared in the unpleasant-neutral contrast, with the addition of structures such as the insula and thalamus. A substantially sparser network was recruited for the pleasant-neutral contrast. Using the late positive potential (LPP) to index the intensity of emotional engagement, functional connectivity was found to be stronger in trials with larger LPP. These results demonstrate that mPFC-mediated functional interactions are engaged specifically during appetitive processing, whereas the amygdala is coupled to distinct sets of brain regions during both aversive and appetitive processing. The strength of these interactions varies as a function of the intensity of emotional engagement.