Proactive and reactive control during emotional interference and its relationship to trait anxiety

Abstract

In classic Stroop paradigms, increasing the proportion of control-demanding incongruent trials results in strategic adjustments in behavior and implementation of cognitive control processes. We manipulated expectancy for incongruent trials in an emotional facial Stroop task to investigate the behavioral and neural effects of proportion manipulation in a cognitively demanding task with emotional stimuli. Subjects performed a high expectancy (HE) task (65% incongruent trials) and a low expectancy (LE) task (35% incongruent trials) during functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI). As in standard Stroop tasks, behavioral interference was reduced in the emotional facial Stroop HE task compared to the LE task. Functional MRI data revealed a switch in cognitive control strategy, from a reactive, event-related activation of a medial and lateral cognitive control network and right amygdala in the LE task to a proactive, sustained activation of right dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC) in the HE task. Higher trait anxiety was associated with impairment (slower response time and decreased accuracy) as well as reduced activity in left ventrolateral prefrontal cortex, anterior insula, and orbitofrontal cortex in the HE task on high conflict trials with task-irrelevant emotional information, suggesting that individual differences in anxiety may be associated with expectancy-related strategic control adjustments, particularly when emotional stimuli must be ignored.

Figure 1

Facial Stroop task. Subjects responded via button-press whether a face was neutral or or fearful in emotion. Each subject performed four blocks of the high expectancy task (65 % incongruent trials) and four blocks of the low expectancy task (35% incongruent trials). ms = millisecond; C = congruent trial, cI = incongruent trial preceded by congruent trial; iI = incongruent trial preceded by incongruent trial.

Figure 2

Behavioral interference effects. Mean reaction time (RT) (a) and accuracy (%) (b) data are plotted for congruent trials (black) and incongruent trials (grey) in the high expectancy task and the low expectancy task. Incongruent trials are significantly slower and less accurate than congruent trials in both tasks. There was also a task × congruency interaction in both RT and accuracy, driven by greater interference effects in the low expectancy task. Error bars indicate standard error of the mean (SEM).

Figure 2

Behavioral interference effects. Mean reaction time (RT) (a) and accuracy (%) (b) data are plotted for congruent trials (black) and incongruent trials (grey) in the high expectancy task and the low expectancy task. Incongruent trials are significantly slower and less accurate than congruent trials in both tasks. There was also a task × congruency interaction in both RT and accuracy, driven by greater interference effects in the low expectancy task. Error bars indicate standard error of the mean (SEM).

Figure 3

Behavioral effects of conflict and emotion. Mean reaction time (RT) is plotted for cI fearful face trials (black) and cI neutral face trials (grey) in the HE task and the LE task (a). While cI neutral face trials were slower than cI fearful face trials in both tasks, a task (HE task, LE task) by face (cI fearful face, cI neutral face) interaction was driven by an improvement in RT for cI neutral face trials in the HE task compared to the LE task. Error bars indicate standard error of the mean (SEM). For each subject, mean RT for cI neutral face trials, LE task – mean RT for cI neutral face trials, HE task was plotted against trait anxiety score (b). High anxiety was negatively correlated with this behavioral measure, showing that lower anxiety is associated with greater RT improvement on cI neutral face trials in the HE task. Mean % accuracy for the cI neutral face trial in the HE task was plotted against trait anxiety score (c). High anxiety was negatively correlated with this behavioral measure as well, showing that lower anxiety is associated with higher accuracy on this trial type in the HE task. Correlations were partial correlations, controlling for task order and task version (see methods). HE = high expectancy task; LE = low expectancy task; cI = incongruent trial preceded by congruent trial.

Figure 3

Behavioral effects of conflict and emotion. Mean reaction time (RT) is plotted for cI fearful face trials (black) and cI neutral face trials (grey) in the HE task and the LE task (a). While cI neutral face trials were slower than cI fearful face trials in both tasks, a task (HE task, LE task) by face (cI fearful face, cI neutral face) interaction was driven by an improvement in RT for cI neutral face trials in the HE task compared to the LE task. Error bars indicate standard error of the mean (SEM). For each subject, mean RT for cI neutral face trials, LE task – mean RT for cI neutral face trials, HE task was plotted against trait anxiety score (b). High anxiety was negatively correlated with this behavioral measure, showing that lower anxiety is associated with greater RT improvement on cI neutral face trials in the HE task. Mean % accuracy for the cI neutral face trial in the HE task was plotted against trait anxiety score (c). High anxiety was negatively correlated with this behavioral measure as well, showing that lower anxiety is associated with higher accuracy on this trial type in the HE task. Correlations were partial correlations, controlling for task order and task version (see methods). HE = high expectancy task; LE = low expectancy task; cI = incongruent trial preceded by congruent trial.

Figure 3

Behavioral effects of conflict and emotion. Mean reaction time (RT) is plotted for cI fearful face trials (black) and cI neutral face trials (grey) in the HE task and the LE task (a). While cI neutral face trials were slower than cI fearful face trials in both tasks, a task (HE task, LE task) by face (cI fearful face, cI neutral face) interaction was driven by an improvement in RT for cI neutral face trials in the HE task compared to the LE task. Error bars indicate standard error of the mean (SEM). For each subject, mean RT for cI neutral face trials, LE task – mean RT for cI neutral face trials, HE task was plotted against trait anxiety score (b). High anxiety was negatively correlated with this behavioral measure, showing that lower anxiety is associated with greater RT improvement on cI neutral face trials in the HE task. Mean % accuracy for the cI neutral face trial in the HE task was plotted against trait anxiety score (c). High anxiety was negatively correlated with this behavioral measure as well, showing that lower anxiety is associated with higher accuracy on this trial type in the HE task. Correlations were partial correlations, controlling for task order and task version (see methods). HE = high expectancy task; LE = low expectancy task; cI = incongruent trial preceded by congruent trial.

Figure 4

Interference activation. Incongruent trials activate an extensive medial and lateral cognitive control network in the LE task. Activity for the contrast I-C, LE task is shown in red. Activity for the contrast (I-C, LE task) – (I-C, HE task) is shown in green. Areas of overlap are shown in yellow (a). There were no areas of activation for the contrast I-C, HE task. Medial views of I-C, LE task (b) and (I-C, LE task) – (I-C, HE task) (c) are shown separately. Results are displayed at p < .005, with a cluster extent threshold that corrects for multiple comparisons (p<.05) (see methods). For (b) and (c), colorbar indicates T statistic. HE = high expectancy task; LE = low expectancy task; I = incongruent trial; C = congruent trial.

Figure 4

Interference activation. Incongruent trials activate an extensive medial and lateral cognitive control network in the LE task. Activity for the contrast I-C, LE task is shown in red. Activity for the contrast (I-C, LE task) – (I-C, HE task) is shown in green. Areas of overlap are shown in yellow (a). There were no areas of activation for the contrast I-C, HE task. Medial views of I-C, LE task (b) and (I-C, LE task) – (I-C, HE task) (c) are shown separately. Results are displayed at p < .005, with a cluster extent threshold that corrects for multiple comparisons (p<.05) (see methods). For (b) and (c), colorbar indicates T statistic. HE = high expectancy task; LE = low expectancy task; I = incongruent trial; C = congruent trial.

Figure 4

Interference activation. Incongruent trials activate an extensive medial and lateral cognitive control network in the LE task. Activity for the contrast I-C, LE task is shown in red. Activity for the contrast (I-C, LE task) – (I-C, HE task) is shown in green. Areas of overlap are shown in yellow (a). There were no areas of activation for the contrast I-C, HE task. Medial views of I-C, LE task (b) and (I-C, LE task) – (I-C, HE task) (c) are shown separately. Results are displayed at p < .005, with a cluster extent threshold that corrects for multiple comparisons (p<.05) (see methods). For (b) and (c), colorbar indicates T statistic. HE = high expectancy task; LE = low expectancy task; I = incongruent trial; C = congruent trial.

Figure 5

Sustained activation. For the contrast (HE task rest) – (LE task-rest) there was greater sustained activity in right DLPFC (BA 46). This contrast was performed using a DLPFC (BA 9/46) mask. Results are displayed at p < .005, with a cluster extent threshold that corrects for multiple comparisons (p<.05) (see methods). HE = high expectancy task; LE = low expectancy task; DLPFC = dorsolateral prefrontal cortex; BA = brodmann area. Colorbar indicates T statistic.

Figure 6

Individual differences in activation. Activity for cI neutral face trials, HE task was negatively correlated with trait anxiety in two regions: right middle temporal gyrus and a left lateralized cluster that spans inferior frontal gyrus/ BA 47, lateral OFC and the anterior insula. (contrast: cI neutral face, HE task – baseline). Results are displayed at p < .005, with a cluster extent threshold that corrects for multiple comparisons (p<.05) (see methods). HE = high expectancy task; cI = incongruent trial preceded by congruent trial; BA = brodmann area; OFC = orbitofrontal cortex. Colorbar indicates Z-statistic.