Suppressing emotions impairs subsequent stroop performance and reduces prefrontal brain activation

Area of Science:

• Cognitive Neuroscience
• Neuroimaging
• Psychology

Background:

• Behavioral studies indicate self-control is finite and its exertion leads to subsequent failures.
• Understanding the neural mechanisms of self-control aftereffects is crucial for explaining these behavioral patterns.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate the neural correlates of self-control aftereffects on future cognitive control processes.
• To examine how an initial act of self-control influences neural activity during a subsequent control task.

Main Methods:

• Functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) was employed to monitor brain activity.
• Participants performed an initial emotion suppression task followed by a Stroop task requiring cognitive control.

Main Results:

• Initial emotion suppression impaired performance on the subsequent Stroop task.
• fMRI revealed decreased activity in the right lateral prefrontal cortex (PFC), including the dorsolateral PFC (DLPFC), after emotion suppression during the Stroop task.
• No significant reduction in activity was observed in the medial frontal cortex (MFC), including the anterior cingulate cortex (ACC).

Conclusions:

• Reduced activity in lateral prefrontal areas, critical for implementing control, may underlie the aftereffects of self-control.
• These findings suggest that prior self-control exertion can deplete neural resources necessary for subsequent control, particularly in areas involved in both tasks.