Affective individual differences alter the emotional modulation of selective attentional processing: An fMRI study

국문 초록 (Abstract)

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다국어 초록 (Multilingual Abstract)

Emotion interacts with attentional processes, and in turn, modulates behavioral performances and neural activation. In this functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) study, we examined the modulatory effect of emotion on selective attention related neural activation. Also, we investigated the correlation between personality factors and the emotional modulatory effect on attentional processing.
To induce emotion, negative, positive and neutral pictures from the International Affective Picture System (IAPS) were presented. In a given trial, each presented emotional (or neutral) picture was followed by a Stroop task. Using a mixed design paradigm, Stroop tasks were presented in an event-related fashion within a certain emotional or neutral block. Eighteen participants were asked to carefully attend to each emotional picture, after which to perform the color-meaning comparison Stroop task. Prior to the fMRI scanning, subjects completed personality questionnaires including Behavioral Inhibition System (BIS) and Extraversion (E).
In the behavioral results, the Stroop interference effects were significantly greater after the induction of negative emotion compared to that of neutral (p = 0.010). Additionally, the Stroop task performance after negative emotion induction positively correlated with BIS (r = 0.520, p = 0.027), whereas it negatively correlated with E (r = -0.669, p = 0.002).
Results of the fMRI data showed that the activity of anterior cingulated cortex (ACC) which is related to conflict monitoring was significantly increased while performing the Stroop task following a negative emotional picture (x,y,z = 4, 14, 44, Z = 2.80, uncorrected, p = 0.003). Effects of negatively induced emotion were also identified in medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC); resolving the interference effects (x,y,z = -6, 32, 30, Z = 1.89, uncorrected, p = 0.029).
Moreover, the magnitude of activation in these areas showed a significant negative correlation with the scores of BIS (pr = -0.612, p = 0.009; pr = -0.526, p = .030, respectively). These results suggest that A) the function of ACC can be modulated by negative emotions that are induced in the early stage of cognitive processing, and B) the individual differences in BIS and E can be an important factor in this emotional effect on selective attentional mechanisms.