Only irrelevant angry, but not happy, expressions facilitate the response inhibition
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Only irrelevant angry, but not happy, expressions facilitate the response inhibition Rashmi Gupta 1 & Jay Prakash Singh 1 Accepted: 21 October 2020 # The Psychonomic Society, Inc. 2020
Abstract It has been debated that arousal rather than valence modulates the response-inhibition process. The processing of irrelevant information of happy and angry faces interacts with attention differently. In the present study, arousal-matched irrelevant happy and angry faces were used as stop-signals in the stop-signal paradigm. Participants were required to respond to go-signals (discriminate between X or O). Occasionally, a stop-signal was presented where participants were required to withhold their motor response. Results indicate a significant effect of emotion on response inhibition, which suggests that valence of a stopsignal modulates inhibitory control. More specifically, we found that only irrelevant angry, but not happy, expressions facilitate the response inhibition process. These results have theoretical implications for understanding the nature of emotions and its interaction with cognitive control functions. Keywords Emotions . Attention . Response inhibition . Happy face . Angry face
Introduction Emotions play an essential role in our life. The processing of emotional stimuli is vital for survival because they provide crucial social and environmental information/cues. When many stimuli in the environment compete for processing resources, emotional stimuli receive prioritization over neutral stimuli and therefore affect cognitive processes (Kalanthroff et al., 2013). Maladaptive processing of emotional information can lead to various psychopathological conditions (e.g., depression, anxiety, post-traumatic stress disorder). Therefore, understanding the nature of the interaction between cognition processes and emotions is essential (Cisler et al., 2010; Gupta, 2007; Gupta & Kar, 2008, 2012; Sippel & Marshall, 2013).
Attention and emotion (positive and negative) Ample research indicates that both “emotional states” and “emotional stimuli” modulate attention processes (see Gupta, 2019; Pessoa, 2009; Vuilleumier, 2005, for a * Rashmi Gupta [email protected] 1
Cognitive and Behavioural Neuroscience Laboratory, Department of Humanities and Social Sciences, First Floor, Indian Institute of Technology Bombay, Mumbai, Maharashtra 400076, India
review). For example, positive emotional states (e.g., joy, contempt) and positive stimuli (e.g., happy faces, reward) broaden and distribute the scope of attention. In contrast, negative states (e.g., depression, anxiety) and negative stimuli (e.g., sad and angry faces) narrow or focus the scope of attention (Fredrickson, 2004; Gupta, 2019; Gupta & Srinivasan, 2015; Gupta et al., 2016; Srinivasan & Gupta, 2010, 2011). These studies indicate that positive and negative emotions interact with attention differently. Emotional stimuli enhance (when used as a target) and interfere (when used as a distractor) with various cognitive processes. For example, emotional stimuli, especiall
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