Interactive effects of trait and state affect on top-down control of attention

Juyoen Hur; Gregory A Miller; Jenika R B McDavitt; Jeffrey M Spielberg; Laura D Crocker; Zachary P Infantolino; David N Towers; Stacie L Warren; Wendy Heller

doi:10.1093/scan/nsu163

Interactive effects of trait and state affect on top-down control of attention

Soc Cogn Affect Neurosci. 2015 Aug;10(8):1128-36. doi: 10.1093/scan/nsu163. Epub 2015 Jan 1.

Authors

Juyoen Hur¹, Gregory A Miller², Jenika R B McDavitt¹, Jeffrey M Spielberg³, Laura D Crocker¹, Zachary P Infantolino⁴, David N Towers⁵, Stacie L Warren⁶, Wendy Heller⁷

Affiliations

¹ Department of Psychology, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, IL 61820, USA.
² Department of Psychology, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, IL 61820, USA, Department of Psychology, University of California, Los Angeles, CA 90095, USA, Department of Psychiatry and Biobehavioral Sciences, University of California, Los Angeles, CA 90095, USA.
³ Department of Psychology, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, IL 61820, USA, Neuroimaging Research for Veterans Center, Boston Healthcare System, Boston, MA 02130, USA.
⁴ Department of Psychology, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, IL 61820, USA, Department of Psychology, University of Delaware, Newark, DE 19716, USA.
⁵ Department of Psychology, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, IL 61820, USA, Department of Psychology, University of Illinois at Springfield, IL 62703, USA and.
⁶ Department of Psychology, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, IL 61820, USA, Department of Psychology, Palo Alto University, Palo Alto, CA 94304, USA.
⁷ Department of Psychology, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, IL 61820, USA, w-heller@illinois.edu.

Abstract

Few studies have investigated how attentional control is affected by transient affective states while taking individual differences in affective traits into consideration. In this study, participants completed a color-word Stroop task immediately after undergoing a positive, neutral or negative affective context manipulation (ACM). Behavioral performance was unaffected by any ACM considered in isolation. For individuals high in trait negative affect (NA), performance was impaired by the negative but not the positive or neutral ACM. Neuroimaging results indicate that activity in primarily top-down control regions of the brain (inferior frontal gyrus and dorsal anterior cingulate cortex) was suppressed in the presence of emotional arousal (both negative and positive ACMs). This effect appears to have been exacerbated or offset by co-occurring activity in other top-down control regions (parietal) and emotion processing regions (orbitofrontal cortex, amygdala and nucleus accumbens) as a function of the valence of state affect (positive or negative) and trait affect (trait NA or trait PA). Neuroimaging results are consistent with behavioral findings. In combination, they indicate both additive and interactive influences of trait and state affect on top-down control of attention.

Keywords: attention; cognitive control; interference; state affect; trait affect.

Publication types

Research Support, N.I.H., Extramural

MeSH terms

Adolescent
Adult
Affect / physiology*
Arousal
Attention / physiology*
Brain Mapping
Cerebral Cortex / physiology
Female
Humans
Magnetic Resonance Imaging
Male
Neuroimaging
Psychomotor Performance / physiology
Reproducibility of Results
Stress, Psychological / psychology
Stroop Test
Temperament / physiology
Young Adult

Abstract

Publication types

MeSH terms

Grants and funding