Emotional system in complex cognitive activities of working memory: A literature review of its role

Abstract

Cognitive processing is needed to elicit emotional responses. At the same time, emotional responses modulate and guide cognition to enable adaptive responses to the environment. However, most empirical studies and theoretical models of cognitive functions have been investigated without taking into account emotion, which is considered interference that is counterproductive to the correct functioning of the cognitive system. To understand how complex behaviors are carried out in the brain, an understanding of the interactions between emotion and cognition may be indispensable. Given the enormous scope of this topic for both cognition and emotion, these concepts will not be further defined here; instead, this review will be relatively narrow in scope and will emphasize several brain systems involved in the interactions between emotion and working memory because an important dimension of cognition involves working memory function. In attempting to understand the relationship between emotion and working memory, we will describe the projections of a set of brain structures that support our emotional life and the neuromodulator dopamine (which is also involved in emotion processing and incentive motivational behavior) in the prefrontal cortex. According to the literature, working memory engages the cortical regions. Thus, the prefrontal cortex, particularly the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC), although commonly viewed as a purely cognitive area, provides a test for the hypothesis that working memory and emotion are strongly integrated in the brain. In this review, we provide an overview of neuropsychological, neuroanatomical and molecular evidence, with the aim of establishing the extent to which working memory and emotion are related.

Keywords: Emotion; dopamine; learning mechanisms; working memory.