Early detection and late cognitive control of emotional distraction by the prefrontal cortex
Fecha
2015-06-12Tipo de documento
articleÁrea/s de conocimiento
PsicologíaMateria/s Unesco
61 PsicologíaResumen
Unpleasant emotional distraction can impair the retention of non-emotional information in working memory (WM). Research links the prefrontal cortex with the successful control of such biologically
relevant distractors, although the temporal changes in this brain mechanism remain unexplored. We
use magnetoencephalography to investigate the temporal dynamics of the cognitive control of both
unpleasant and pleasant distraction, in the millisecond (ms) scale. Behavioral results demonstrate
that pleasant events do not affect WM maintenance more than neutral ones. Neuroimaging results
show that prefrontal cortices are recruited for the rapid detection of emotional distraction, at early
latencies of the processing (70-130 ms). Later in the processing (360-450 ms), the dorsolateral, the
medial and the orbital sections of the prefrontal cortex mediate the effective control of emotional
distraction. In accordance with the behavioral performance, pleasant distractors do not require
higher prefrontal activity than neutral ones. These findings extend our knowledge about the brain
mechanisms of coping with emotional distraction in WM. In particular, they show for the first time
that overriding the attentional capture triggered by emotional distractors, while maintaining taskrelevant
elements in mind, is based on the early detection of such linked-to-survival information and
on its later cognitive control by the prefrontal cortex.