Neurocognitive mechanisms of affective conflict adaptation: An event related fMRI study

Control of conflict can be seen in reduced effects of conflict following incompatible trials known as conflict adaptation. Such control mechanisms have been shown to depend on emotional content present in stimuli, which could be a motivational force for control adjustments. We explored the neural mechanisms of the interaction between proactive control in terms of conflict adaptation effect and emotions through an event related fMRI study involving an emotional Stroop effect (facial expression-emotional word paradigm) involving happy and angry expressions. Conflict adaptation was measured in terms of the reduction in Stroop effect as a function of previous trial congruence and previous trial emotion. Participants responded to the facial expression while ignoring the distractor word written over the face. Behavioral results showed larger Stroop effect for angry faces compared to happy faces. Conflict adaptation effect was greater for angry faces and was also influenced by previous trial emotion. Both priming and adaptation effects were observed. Stroop effect was correlated with activations in dorsal anterior cingulate. Emotion effect was correlated with activations in amygdala, fusiform face area (FFA), and insula along with the expected hemispheric asymmetry for positive and negative emotions in left vs right FFA, respectively. Conflict adaptation effect was correlated with activations in amygdala. In addition, activations in striatum supported the three-way interaction between emotion, previous and current trial congruence. Activation in dorsal anterior cingulate was correlated only with the overall Stroop effect in the current trial. Activations in amygdala and striatum were also found with facial expressions. The results indicate that emotion specific processing areas themselves such as amygdala and striatum may self-regulate and contribute toward enhanced proactive control mechanisms for task-relevant emotional stimuli. These findings further confirm the strong relationship between cognition and affect in the context of conflict monitoring and adjustments in cognitive control.