Introduction to the special research topic on the neurobiology of emotion-cognition interactions (original) (raw)
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Recent years have witnessed the emergence of powerful new tools for assaying the brain and a remarkable acceleration of research focused on the interplay of emotion and cognition. This work has begun to yield new insights into fundamental questions about the nature of the mind and important clues about the origins of mental illness. In particular, this research demonstrates that stress, anxiety, and other kinds of emotion can profoundly influence key elements of cognition, including selective attention, working memory, and cognitive control. Often, this influence persists beyond the duration of transient emotional challenges, partially reflecting the slower molecular dynamics of catecholamine and hormonal neurochemistry. In turn, circuits involved in attention, executive control, and working memory contribute to the regulation of emotion. The distinction between the ‘emotional’ and the ‘cognitive’ brain is fuzzy and context-dependent. Indeed, there is compelling evidence that brain territories and psychological processes commonly associated with cognition, such as the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex and working memory, play a central role in emotion. Furthermore, putatively emotional and cognitive regions influence one another via a complex web of connections in ways that jointly contribute to adaptive and maladaptive behavior. This work demonstrates that emotion and cognition are deeply interwoven in the fabric of the brain, suggesting that widely held beliefs about the key constituents of ‘the emotional brain’ and ‘the cognitive brain’ are fundamentally flawed. We conclude by outlining several strategies for enhancing future research. Developing a deeper understanding of the emotional-cognitive brain is important, not just for understanding the mind but also for elucidating the root causes of its disorders.
Frontiers in Human Neuroscience, 2015
Recent years have witnessed the emergence of powerful new tools for assaying the brain and a remarkable acceleration of research focused on the interplay of emotion and cognition. This work has begun to yield new insights into fundamental questions about the nature of the mind and important clues about the origins of mental illness. In particular, this research demonstrates that stress, anxiety, and other kinds of emotion can profoundly influence key elements of cognition, including selective attention, working memory, and cognitive control. Often, this influence persists beyond the duration of transient emotional challenges, partially reflecting the slower molecular dynamics of catecholamine and hormonal neurochemistry. In turn, circuits involved in attention, executive control, and working memory contribute to the regulation of emotion. The distinction between the 'emotional' and the 'cognitive' brain is fuzzy and context-dependent. Indeed, there is compelling evidence that brain territories and psychological processes commonly associated with cognition, such as the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex and working memory, play a central role in emotion. Furthermore, putatively emotional and cognitive regions influence one another via a complex web of connections in ways that jointly contribute to adaptive and maladaptive behavior. This work demonstrates that emotion and cognition are deeply interwoven in the fabric of the brain, suggesting that widely held beliefs about the key constituents of 'the emotional brain' and 'the cognitive brain' are fundamentally flawed. We conclude by outlining several strategies for enhancing future research. Developing a deeper understanding of the emotional-cognitive brain is important, not just for understanding the mind but also for elucidating the root causes of its disorders.
Current research and emerging directions in emotion-cognition interactions
Frontiers in integrative neuroscience, 2014
Emotion is a "double-edged sword" that can either enhance or hinder various aspects of our cognition and behavior. For instance, the emotional charge of an event can increase attention to and memory for that event, whereas task-irrelevant emotional information may lead to increased distraction away from goalrelevant tasks. Sometimes, even the same emotionally arousal event can lead to opposite effects on different aspects of cognitive processing-hearing a gunshot might enhance memory for central aspects of what was happening at the time, while impairing memory for peripheral details. Stress can also lead to quite different effects depending on the context and degree of stress. For example, emotional responses associated with optimal levels of stress (eustress) may increase performance (e.g., positive emotions associated with wedding preparations), whereas emotions associated with exposure to extreme levels of stress impair performance (e.g., overwhelming worry in the anticipation of a difficult exam). Importantly, these effects are also susceptible to cognitive influences, typically exerted in the form of emotion control, which may affect both the immediate and the long-term impact of emotion on cognition. Although during the last decades important progress has been made in understanding emotion-cognition interactions, a number of aspects remain unclear.
Emotion, cognition, and behavior
Science, 2002
Emotion is central to the quality and range of everyday human experience. The neurobiological substrates of human emotion are now attracting increasing interest within the neurosciences motivated, to a considerable extent, by advances in functional neuroimaging techniques. An emerging theme is the question of how emotion interacts with and influences other domains of cognition, in particular attention, memory, and reasoning. The psychological consequences and mechanisms underlying the emotional modulation of cognition provide the focus of this article.
Interplay Between Cognition and Emotion: Unravelling the Mind Complexity
2024
To understand human behavior and mental health, one must understand the complex interplay between cognition and emotion. The cognitive processes of perception, attention, memory, and decision-making, as well as the affective states, mood, and subjective experiences associated with emotions, are often regarded as distinct entities. However, new research shows that cognitive processes are strongly linked to emotional experiences and vice versa. To comprehend the complex relationship between cognition and emotion, this research article examines its importance, mechanisms, and prospective effects on psychological well-being. The complex relationship between cognition and emotion is examined using dual-process theories, appraisal theory, embodied cognition, and neurocognitive models. According to this study, attentional biases and cognitive reappraisal alter emotional experiences and reactions. It explores how emotional states affect cognitive performance, notably attention allocation, memory encoding, and decision-making. This study also investigates the neurological systems that link cognition and emotion, highlighting the prefrontal cortex, amygdala, and hippocampus. To study cognitive-emotional relationships, neuroimaging, behavioral experiments, and computer modeling are used. By understanding the complex link between cognition and emotion, this research advances strategies to improve cognitive-emotional dysregulation and mental health. The utilization of conclusions can serve to elucidate psychopathology, formulate therapeutic approaches, and foster resilience in the face of adversity. The examination of the relation between cognition and emotion holds significant importance in comprehending human behavior and mental well-being, and this research delves into this subject comprehensively.
Emotions can have both enhancing and impairing effects on various cognitive processes, from lower (e.g., perceptual) to higher level (e.g., mnemonic and executive) processes. The present article discusses emerging brain imaging evidence linking these opposing effects of emotion, which points to overlapping and dissociable neural systems involving both bottom-up and topdown mechanisms. The link between the enhancing and impairing effects is also discussed in a clinical context, with a focus on posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD), where these opposing effects tend to co-occur, are exacerbated, and are detrimental. Overall, the present review highlights the need to consider together enhancing and impairing effects of emotion on cognition in studies investigating emotion-cognition interactions.
2011
Complex dynamic behaviour involves reciprocal influences between emotion and cognition. On the one hand, emotion is a “double-edged sword” that may affect various aspects of our cognition and behaviour, by enhancing or hindering them and exerting both transient and long-term influences. On the other hand, emotion processing is also susceptible to cognitive influences, typically exerted in the form of emotion regulation. Noteworthy, both of these reciprocal influences are subjective to individual differences that may affect the way we perceive, experience, and eventually remember emotional experiences, or respond to emotionally challenging situations. Understanding these relationships is critical, as unbalanced emotion–cognition interactions may lead to devastating effects, such as those observed in mood and anxiety disorders. The present review analyses the reciprocal relationships between emotion and cognition, based on evidence derived from brain imaging investigations focusing on three main topics: (1) the impact of emotion on cognition, (2) the impact of cognition on emotion, and (3) the role of individual differences in emotion–cognition interactions. This evidence will be discussed in the context of identifying aspects that are fundamental to understanding the mechanisms underlying emotion–cognition interactions in healthy functioning, and to understanding changes associated with affective disorders.
Modulation of emotion by cognition and cognition by emotion
NeuroImage, 2007
In this study, we examined the impact of goal-directed processing on the response to emotional pictures and the impact of emotional pictures on goal-directed processing. Subjects (N = 22) viewed neutral or emotional pictures in the presence or absence of a demanding cognitive task. Goaldirected processing disrupted the BOLD response to emotional pictures. In particular, the BOLD response within bilateral amygdala and inferior frontal gyrus decreased during concurrent task performance. Moreover, the presence of both positive and negative distractors disrupted task performance, with reaction times increasing for emotional relative to neutral distractors. Moreover, in line with the suggestion of the importance of lateral frontal regions in emotional regulation [Ochsner, K. N., Ray, R. D., Cooper, J. C., Robertson, E. R., Chopra, S., Gabrieli, J. D., et al. (2004). For better or for worse: neural systems supporting the cognitive down-and up-regulation of negative emotion. NeuroImage, 23(2), 483-499], connectivity analysis revealed positive connectivity between lateral superior frontal cortex and regions of middle frontal cortex previously implicated in emotional suppression . Neural correlates of conscious self-regulation of emotion. . Association of neural and physiological responses during voluntary emotion suppression. NeuroImage, 29 (3), 721-733] and negative connectivity with bilateral amygdala. These data suggest that processes involved in emotional regulation are recruited during task performance in the context of emotional distractors.
The interaction between cognition and emotion
Chinese Science Bulletin, 2009
Cognition and emotion have long been thought of as independent systems. However, recent research in the cognitive and neurobiological sciences has shown that the relationship between cognition and emotion is more interdependent than separate. Based on evidence from behavioral and neuroscientific research, researchers have realized that it is necessary to propose a new conceptual framework to describe the relationship between cognition and emotion. In this article, recent research from behavioral, neuroscientific and developmental research on the interaction between cognition and emotion is summarized, and how the interaction of cognition and emotion might affect computer science and artificial intelligence is discussed. It especially focuses on the implications for affective computing. emotion, cognition, interaction, affective computing